Parties - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition parties

Definition :

Parties, a suit under s. 92 of the code is thus a representative suit and as such binds not only the parties named in the suit-title but all those who are interested in the trust, R. Venugopala Naidu v. Venkatarayulu Naidu Charities, AIR 1990 SC 444 (447): 1989 Supp (2) SCC 356. (Code of Civil Procedure, s. 92)

Persons jointly concerned in any deed or act; litigants.

The Rules of the Supreme Court, 1883, Ord. XVI., make very full provision as to the joinder of parties and the consequences of misjoinder and non-joinder. All persons may be joined as plaintiffs in whom the right to any relief claimed is alleged to exist, whether jointly, severally, or in the alter-native. Two or more defendants may be joined, in case the plaintiff is in doubt as to the person from whom he is entitled to redress. Trustees, executors, and administrators may sue and be sued on behalf of or as representing the property or estate of which they are the trustees or representatives, without joining any of the parties beneficially interested in the trust or estate. Where there are numerous parties having the same interest in one action, one or more of such parties may sue or be sued, or may be authoriszed by the Court to defend in such action, on behalf of or for the benefit of all parties so interested. 'No cause or matter shall be defeated by reason of the misjoinder or non-joinder of parties, and the court may in every cause or matter deal with the matter in controversy, so far as regards the rights and interests of the parties actually before it. The court or a judge may, at any stage of the proceedings, either upon or without the application of either party, and on such terms as may appear to the court or a judge to be just, order that the names of any parties, whether as plaintiffs or as defendants, improperly joined, be struck out, and that the names of any parties, whether plaintiffs or defendants, who ought to have been joined, or whose presence before the Court may be necessary in order to enable the Court effectually and completely to adjudicate upon and settle all the questions involved in the action, be added' (Rule 11).

The same Order, XVI., by Rules 48-55, allows the introduction of 'third parties' in cases where the defendant claims any remedy over against any other person. see THIRD PARTY.

By the (English) Judicature Act, 1925, s. 225, replac-ing the (English) Judicature Act, 1873, s. 100, the word 'party'includes every person served with notice of or attending any proceeding, although not named on the record.

As to change of parties by death, etc., see ABATE-MENT; and as to who ought to be made parties, see Dicey on Parties.

The order in which the parties to a conveyance are set out is as follows: (1) The owner of the legal inheritance; (2) Persons having equitable or beneficial interests in the inheritance; (3) Persons possessed of chattel interests; (4) The grantee or release; (5) Trustees for the grantee or releasee.

In criminal cases the parties are the prosecutor and the prisoner or defendant.

Parties to a cause, civil or criminal, have a right to be present, in any case, throughout the trial. See WITNESSES.