Saji Koduvath, Advocate, Kottayam.

Introduction.

Order II rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure bars splitting of reliefs, claimed in suits, on the same cause of action. The object is two-fold. First, defendants should not be vexed twice for the same cause of action (Inacio Martins v. Narayan Hari Naik, AIR 1993 SC 1756; 1993-3 SCC 123; and the second, prevent multiplicity of suits (State Bank of India v. Gracure Pharmaceuticals Ltd. , AIR 2014 SC 731; R. Salvi v. Satish Shankar Gupte, AIR 2004 Bom 455).

“Order II rule 2 : Suits to include the whole claim:

• (1) Every suit shall include the whole of the claim which the plaintiff is entitled to make in respect of the cause of action; but a plaintiff may relinquish any portion of his claim in order to bring the suit within the jurisdiction of any Court.
• (2) Relinquishment of part of claim.- Where a plaintiff omits to sue in respect of, or intentionally relinquishes, any portion of his claim, he shall not afterwards sue in respect of the portion so omitted or relinquished.
• (3) Omission to sue for one of several reliefs.- A person entitled to more than one relief in respect of the same cause of action may sue for all or any of such reliefs; but if he omits, except with the leave of the Court, to sue for all such reliefs, he shall not afterwards sue for any relief so omitted.
• Explanation.- For the purposes of this rule an obligation and a collateral security for its performance and successive claims arising under the same obligation shall be deemed respectively to constitute but one cause of action.”