Writ amendment rules: courts may reject a new inconsistent case, but permit non-conflicting legal grounds to be added.
Writ amendment in tax-related proceedings was held impermissible where it sought to replace the original challenge to unauthorised search and seizure with a wholly different and inconsistent case. Amendment was also refused for introducing post-writ facts and a fresh challenge to the section 132(5) order, since such a new cause of action and relief should ordinarily be pursued separately. By contrast, the court permitted amendment of additional legal grounds that were consistent with the original pleadings and necessary for a just determination of the controversy.
Issues: (i) Whether the writ petitioners could be permitted to amend the writ petitions so as to introduce a fundamentally different and inconsistent case; (ii) whether amendment could be allowed to incorporate post-writ facts and a challenge to the order passed under section 132(5) of the Income-tax Act, 1961; (iii) whether additional legal grounds not inconsistent with the original pleadings could be added by amendment.
Issue (i): Whether the writ petitioners could be permitted to amend the writ petitions so as to introduce a fundamentally different and inconsistent case.
Analysis: The original writs rested on the case that the search and seizure were unauthorised. The proposed amendments sought to replace that foundation with a wholly different factual basis alleging a conspiracy and later-obtained warrants. An amendment that substitutes a new and inconsistent cause of action is not one necessary for determining the real question in controversy and cannot be treated as a permissible amendment of the original pleading.
Conclusion: The amendment was rightly refused on this ground and the petitioners' request failed.
Issue (ii): Whether amendment could be allowed to incorporate post-writ facts and a challenge to the order passed under section 132(5) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
Analysis: The proposed amendment would have introduced a fresh cause of action arising after the filing of the writ petition and would have converted the proceeding into a challenge to a subsequent summary assessment order. In writ jurisdiction, such an amendment is not to be allowed lightly, and a new and different relief arising from changed circumstances must ordinarily be pursued by a separate petition. The court also declined to decide the respondents' plea of infructuousness at this stage and reserved that question for final hearing.
Conclusion: The amendment incorporating post-writ facts and the challenge under section 132(5) was disallowed.
Issue (iii): Whether additional legal grounds not inconsistent with the original pleadings could be added by amendment.
Analysis: The additional grounds were legal in nature, did not conflict with the existing case, and were considered necessary for a just decision of the controversy. No prejudice to the other side was shown, and the amendments were within the permissible scope of amendment jurisdiction.
Conclusion: The amendment on this limited ground was allowed.
Final Conclusion: The amendment applications succeeded only to the extent of permitting additional legal grounds, while the attempts to substitute a new factual case and to introduce post-writ reliefs were rejected.
Ratio Decidendi: An amendment in writ proceedings cannot be allowed if it introduces a wholly new and inconsistent cause of action, but additional non-conflicting legal grounds may be permitted where they aid determination of the real controversy.
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