Section 151 - Inherent Powers

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Why do inherent powers exist?
If the courts have missed out anything and there is no provision to provide justice the
courts can use its its inherent powers.

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Who grants these powers to the court?
It does not come out of the Code of Civil Procedure, these powers exist just like the
courts exists. The inherent powers does not come out of any statute. The courts exist
to provide justice. ‘ex debito justitiae’ (discharge the debt of justice)

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There are two important things to note under inherent powers:
(a) abuse of process
(b) meeting the ends of justice

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S. 151 became a very abused provision by the courts

• the advocates began to file any type of application under this principle of
inherent powers
• To curb the abuse of these powers, the SC defined the contours of filing an
application under this section

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Section 151 comes into question only when there is no provision. For e.g., If there
is a major late submission of a written statement, in extraordinary situations, the
courts can accept the written statement by exercising its inherent powers. They
discharge their debt to justice by using S. 151 and allowing the written statement to
be submitted.

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Only if there is an absence of exhaustive law, only in such situations, S. 151 can be
used.

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Taking into consideration a hypothetical of filing an injunction application, an
application under S. 151 can be filed pleading that, if the injunction is not granted,
there is no point filing an injunction suits the govt might cause irreparable loss to
the ancestral house.
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When provision is not exhaustive and not clear cut, than the inherent powers
cannot be exercised.

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Whenever a S.151 application is filed, it is always filed as ‘read with’ another
section. For e.g., in a restoration suit, it will be - Section 151 r/w Order 9 Rule 4.

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There is no limitation period on filing an inherent powers application as it is not
mentioned in either the CPC or in the limitation act. It is subject to the principle of
laches though.

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Laches - It can be considered as the brother of limitation. This principle says that
you have the right to come to court but cannot sleep long enough to corrode this
rule.

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Laches is more lenient than limitation acts.

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Cannot file appeal on this order under S. 151 but can file a review or a revision
petition.

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In this context, can review on appealable clauses be filed? No. As mentioned under
S. 115.

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Review can be filed only when appealable and not exhausted.

Miscellaneous Sections :-

Section 152

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Act of the court should not be inherently wrong; a few clerical changes can be
made to the decree or order can be made. For e.g., changing the the name of the
accused.

Section 153 - Order 6, Rule 16

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S.153 ‘General power to amend.’
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Other than ‘pleading,’ every other suit proceeding can be amended under this
section. Only exception being O 6 R 17, so that either of parties are not denied
justice to contest the real conflict between the parties. Provided that such amended
can not take place after the trial has commenced and that only if the court feels that
even after due diligence the party could not have raised the matter before the trial
has commenced. Further that it will be used to amend only the pleadings.

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It includes only Plaint & written statement.

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‘Interim application’ eg, ‘during suit proceeding’ can be amended under S.153.

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Restoration application which deals with ‘interlocutory application’ in relation of
suit proceeding, as it is not directly dealing with the original suit proceeding, when
amendment is needed, it will be allowed by reading S.153 along with S. 141.

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S153 in essence deals with all those proceedings whose matters aren't dealt with in
the Code of Civil Procedure. It deals with the amendment of all those suit
proceedings that aren't covered within the Code of Civil Procedure.