Pleadings amendment cannot defeat accrued limitation rights when a new challenge to a registered gift deed is introduced.

An amendment of pleadings under Order 6 Rule 17 CPC may be refused where it introduces a new challenge to a registered gift deed and would defeat an accrued limitation-based defence. Leave to amend is generally granted, but a court will decline it when the proposed pleading is not a mere clarification and instead seeks to avoid the legal effect of an already registered instrument. Because the gift deed had been registered long before, operated as notice, and the challenge was not promptly raised after it was specifically pleaded, the opposite party's accrued right would have been prejudiced. The amendment was therefore correctly refused.

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Issues: Whether an amendment to the plaint under Order 6 Rule 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, introducing a challenge to a registered gift deed could be allowed when the amendment would take away a right accrued to the respondents by lapse of time.

Analysis: Leave to amend is ordinarily granted, but it may be refused where the amendment would defeat an accrued legal right. A clarification that merely explains an existing pleading may stand on a different footing, but here the proposed amendment would add a new challenge to a registered gift deed and seek to avoid its effect. The deed had been registered long before, registration operated as notice, and the appellant took no prompt steps after the written statement specifically pleaded the gift. Allowing the amendment would therefore prejudice the respondents by depriving them of the limitation-based defence that had accrued to them.

Conclusion: The amendment was rightly refused and the issue was decided against the appellant.

Ratio Decidendi: An amendment of pleadings that introduces a new claim or relief and would take away a vested limitation-based right accrued to the opposite party should be refused.

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