Privity of contract and necessary party test: a forwarding agent was properly deleted where liability lay against the principal buyer.

Where the plaint disclosed that the supply contract was with the principal buyer and that the first defendant was only a forwarding agent in the transportation arrangement, the Delhi HC held that no privity of contract existed between the appellant and the agent. On that footing, the agent could not be made liable for the buyer's default and was properly deleted from the array of parties as a non-necessary and improper party under Order I Rule 10(2) CPC. The Court treated the dispute as one lying, if at all, against the contracting principal, and found that further discussion on limitation or rejection of plaint was unnecessary once deletion was the real issue.

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Issues: Whether the respondent was a necessary and proper party to the suit and liable to remain on the array of parties despite being an agent of the intermediary in the transportation arrangement.

Analysis: The pleadings showed that the contract for supply was with the third defendant, while the second defendant had arranged transportation and the first defendant acted as its forwarding agent. There was no direct contractual relationship between the appellant and the first defendant, and the cause of action, if any, arose against the principal buyer. The second defendant had already been deleted from the suit as not being a necessary party. In these circumstances, the Court held that the first defendant, being only an agent in the transport chain, could not be fastened with liability for the buyer's default, and the discussion on limitation and rejection of plaint was unnecessary once the application was effectively one for deletion of a non-necessary party.

Conclusion: The deletion of the first defendant from the array of parties was justified, and the appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the plaint itself discloses no privity of contract with an intermediary agent and the real dispute lies against the contracting principal, the agent may be deleted as a non-necessary and improper party under Order I Rule 10(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

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