Sufficient Cause - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition sufficient-cause

Definition :

Sufficient cause, for non-appearance refers to the date on which the absence was made a ground for proceeding ex parte and cannot be stretched to rely upon other circumstances anterior in time, Tea Auction Ltd. v. Grace Hill Tea Industry, AIR 2007 SC 67.

Sufficient cause is an expression which is found in various statues. It has been construed liberally in keeping with its ordinary dictionary meaning as adequate or enough. That is, any justifiable reason resulting in vacation has to be understood as sufficient cause. For instance economic difficulty or financial stringency or family reasons may compel a landlord to let out a building in his occupation. So long as it is found to be genuine and bona fide it would amount to vacating a building for sufficient cause, Surinder Singh Sibia v. Vijay Kumar Sood, AIR 1992 SC 1540 (1541): (1992) 1 SCC 70. [H.P. Urban Rent Control Act, 1987, s. 14(3), Proviso 2]

The expression 'sufficient cause' cannot be cons-trued too liberally, merely because the party is the Government. It cannot also be gainsaid that the same consideration that will be shown by courts to a private party when he claims the protection of s. 5 of the Limitation Act should also be available to the State. The words 'sufficient cause' should receive a liberal construction so as to advance substantial justice when no negligence or inaction or want of bona fide is imputable to a party, State of West Bengal v. Administrator, AIR 1972 SC 749: (1972) 1 SCC 366: (1972) 2 SCR 874.

The expression 'sufficient cause' in s. 5 of the Limitation Act must receive a liberal construction so as to advance substantial justice, G. Ramegowda v. Spl. Land Acquisition Officer, AIR 1988 SC 897: (1988) 3 SCR 198: (1988) 2 SCC 142.

The expression 'sufficient cause' should, therefore, be considered with pragmatism in justice-oriented approach rather than the technical detection of sufficient cause for explaining every day's delay. The factors which are peculiar to and characteristic of the functioning of the governmental conditions would be cognizant to and requires adoption of pragmatic approach in justice-oriented process. The court should decide the matters on merits unless the case is hopelessly without merit. No separate standards to determine the cause laid by the State vis-a-vis private litigant could be laid to prove strict standards of sufficient cause, State of Haryana v. Chandra Mani, AIR 1996 SC 1623: (1996) 3 SCC 132. (Limitation Act, 1963, s. 5)