Manohar Lal Chopra v Rai Bahadur Rao Raja Seth Hiralal

• M filed a suit at Asansol against H for recovery of money. H filed a counter suit at Indore against M. The Asansol court refused to stay its suit, and the Calcutta High Court directed it to decide the issue of jurisdiction at once. H then obtained an injunction from the Indore court restraining M from proceeding with the Asansol suit. The Madhya Bharat High Court upheld the injunction under S.151 CPC.

1. Whether a civil court can grant a temporary injunction under its inherent powers in a case not covered by O.XXXIX CPC, and whether the injunction was proper.

• The injunction was wrongly granted and was vacated. By majority (Wanchoo, Das Gupta and Raghubar Dayal JJ), civil courts have inherent power to issue temporary injunctions in cases not covered by O.XXXIX, since the Code is not exhaustive. But inherent powers are not to be exercised in conflict with the express provisions of the Code or against the intention of the legislature, and only in very exceptional circumstances. A plaintiff in another jurisdiction may be restrained only if his suit is vexatious and useless, which was not so here. Shah J took the view that the power to issue temporary injunctions is limited to O.XXXIX.

The Code is not exhaustive. Civil courts have inherent power to issue temporary injunctions in cases not covered by O.XXXIX, but that power cannot be exercised in conflict with the express provisions of the Code or against the intention of the legislature, and only in exceptional circumstances. A party may be restrained from proceeding in another court only if that suit is vexatious and useless.