Order XIV Rule 2 CPC: jurisdictional and statutory-bar issues may be tried first, but only at the court's discretion.

The amended Order XIV Rule 2 CPC requires courts to decide all issues and has curtailed the vious practice of trying preliminary issues first. After the 1976 amendment, the court is not bound to treat every question of jurisdiction or statutory bar as a preliminary issue; sub-rule (2) merely preserves a discretion to try such an issue first where it is an issue of law. The change was intended to reduce piecemeal trials and delay from interlocutory challenges. The legal effect is that jurisdictional and statutory-bar questions may be taken up preliminarily, but only at the court's discretion, not as a mandatory obligation.

---

---

Issues: Whether, after the 1976 amendment to Order XIV Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, the Court is bound to try as a preliminary issue any question relating to jurisdiction or a statutory bar to the suit.

Analysis: The amended rule requires the Court to pronounce judgment on all issues notwithstanding that the case may be capable of disposal on a preliminary issue. The earlier obligation to try pure issues of law first, and the broader discretion to try mixed issues as preliminary issues, stood curtailed by the amendment. The only exception preserved by sub-rule (2) is that the Court may, in its discretion, try first an issue of law relating to jurisdiction or to a bar created by law, but the language 'it may try' does not impose a duty. The legislative change was intended to prevent piecemeal trials and avoid delay caused by interlocutory challenges on preliminary issues.

Conclusion: The Court is not under any mandatory obligation to decide jurisdictional issues or issues of legal bar as preliminary issues under the amended rule; it has only a discretion to do so.

---