Civil Law

Civil law is a very important branch of law which protects the private rights of citizens and offers legal remedies to the aggrieved persons and provides reliefs which they sought in a dispute. It covers multiple areas of law like contracts, media, education, sports, property, torts, family law etc... This civil law tries to resolve disputes by providing compensations to the victims, rather than rigorous punishment to the accused. In the Civil Court, disputes related to civil matters can be settled with the help of judicious and refined attorneys and lawyers. Civil law is vast, and it covers many areas of law in day to day life. These are the categories of law which deal under Civil Law, or Civil suits can be filed in these matters.

Real Estate Law:Day by Day Real Estate Sector has been developing. Everywhere Skyscrapers and High – rise building are being constructed. New societies are developing. So to deal with all these matters Rera Laws has been enacted.

Business or Commercial Law:Everyday people are opening businesses. Business law deals with forming a company, right of shareholders, mergers and acquisitions, property issues like office lease or warehouse space. Ethics related to Business organizations, employee-employer complaints, frauds etc. are covered under this body of law. Commercial law is primarily regulated by the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which is a model set of laws regarding the sales of goods, leases of goods, negotiable instruments, and secured transactions.

Education Law:All matters related to the Education industry deals under this. For example, complaints related to Student-teacher, false registration of Educational organizations, or any act of deception by educational firms etc. It provides the right of education to every child.

Consumer Law:This law deals with the protection of consumer rights. Any matter where a consumer is a victim falls under this law and the matter tried in consumer court. All the case related to the consumer like unjust pricing, non-fulfillment of consented products etc falls under this law.

Tax Law:Taxation is a very important law. In each and every sector there is the applicability of taxes. Every matter which is related to tax like GST, Sales Tax, entertainment tax etc.. are covered under this body of law.

Entertainment Law:All the matter related to the entertainment industry is dealing under media and entertainment law. It covers subjects like co-production matter, broadcasting issues etc...

Contract Law:Contract law deals with the Issues related to the contract between two parties if there is any breach of the contract etc are covered under this law. Breach of contract means, one party has not fulfilled the criteria of contract, which drag them to a court of law under contract act. It involves cases like non-completion of job, payment failure, failed to provide goods or services at the time.

Administrative Law:It is the branch of law which governs the activities of government agencies. It is a law which covers broad areas. It includes issues related to rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda etc

Sports Law:It deals with the matter related to sports. It is applied law in the field of sports with a blend of jurisdictions. It deals with various issues like claim and compensation in case of injury while playing, contractual agreements between employer and employee, harassment in sports, deals related to playing hours, wages, broadcasting rights etc…

Tort:A "tort" is a wrongful act (sometimes called a "tortuous" act), other than a breach of contract, that results in injury to someone's person, property, reputation, or the like, for which the injured person is entitled to compensation. Cases related to personal injury, battery, negligence, defamation, medical malpractice, fraud, and many others which includes a claim , are all examples of Tort.

Property Related Matter-Civil courts handle disputes related to property ownership. It also deals with the disputes which arise between landlords and tenants. In day to day life, many matters related to the eviction of tenant has been noticed, where a landlord is trying to evict a tenant , matters related to returning of security deposits etc

Standard of Proof

In mostly civil matters, the judge decides on the basis of supportive, strong evidences which are known as “preponderance of the evidence." It means that one party, evidence is more convincing than the other.

Procedural steps of Civil Suits

• Pre-filing-

  Before moving into proper litigation, lawyers try to settle the disputes through negotiation, arbitration, legal notices etc... So, an aggrieved party need not go in court lengthy procedure and also preparation for proper litigation is the pre-filing stage.

• Initial pleading-

  From here pleading starts. Aggrieved party files plaint in the court and hereafter all the court procedures start.

• plaint copy-

  once the suit has been registered or instituted, Copy of plaint will be sent by a court to the other party who is involved in dispute and date for summoning will be mentioned.

• Pre-trial-

  In this stage, all the evidences and witnesses should be gathered. Written statement preparation for filing shall be done. They might engage in an alternative way of settlement, and they may file motions with the court to resolve the case or limit the issues for trial.

• Appearance–

  On the day of appearance, the written statement shall be filed by the defendant. In case, if no written statement has been filed, the court may take a decision on the basis of the plaint.

• Trial-

  Proper trial begins once a written statement filed by the other party i.e defendant. During this stage, the matter lies before the judge as per court jurisdiction and document verifications, examining of witnesses, presentation of evidences, hearings, arguments from both the sides, shall be done.

• Post-trial-

  Once final arguments are done, an order shall be passed by the judge. If any party is aggrieved by the order, then they move in the high court for an appeal.

  But not every civil case follows these stages. Some cases (summary eviction cases, for example) have unique procedures that are set out in the court's rules or in the governing statutes.

APPEAL IN CIVIL MATTER

Appeals which are filed against the decision or order of civil cases are known as civil appeals which are governed by The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. Any order /decree passed by the district judge can be challenged in the High Court. Anyone can file Appeal if a decision has been given EX-PARTE (which means, the order passed just by hearing one party).

WHO CAN FILE APPEAL

• It can be filed by the aggrieved person who is a party, of the case

• In case of the death of an aggrieved person, legal heirs or representative can file an appeal or can maintain the appeal.

• The person who files Appeal is known as the appellant and the court which entertain such matters known as Appellate court.

WHEN AN APPEAL CAN BE FILED IN THE HIGH COURT

• If the person is aggrieved by the decree passed by the district court

• Where the party in dispute raises question relating to territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction of the court, which is passing a decree

• Where there is a challenge related to the interpretation of law

• If there is defect or error related to legal proceeding occurred related to a case

• When a failure of justice happened due to the incompetency of court

• When all the aggrieved parties didn’t join the original matter and order has been passed without hearing them Where a substantial question of law exists and affecting the right of the parties

Under what circumstances Appeal is not allowed:

• No appeal can be filed, where the value of the original suit is not more than Rs.3000/-

• No appeal can be filed if decree passed by the court is with the consent of parties

• Before proceeding further let me explain something about the concept of first Appeal and Second Appeal.

A decree passed by Appellate civil court is considered to be First Appeal and if such decree is challenged before the High Court is considered as a matter of Second Appeal. The second Appeal can only be filed in the matter of Ex-Parte decree passed by the court and where the court is satisfied that matter of the substantial question of law is involved.

Limitation periods

For every appeal, there is some time limit, within which appeal should be filed according to the Limitation Act.

The limitation period for the appeal varies like:

• 90 days is the limitation period for Appeal to the High court
• 30 days is the limitation period for an Appeal to the other courts.
• And for review in the same court, the time period is 30 days.

Appellant is required to give Court fee, which is not very high, and once it filed, the notice shall serve to the opposite party also.

STAY:

Filing of an appeal does not mean that the decree or order passed by a lower court stays. For that one need to take specific permission for a stay on the decree or order passed by the lower court and stay will only operate if court grants permission.

PROCEDURE:

• An Appeal can be filed after fulfilling abovementioned criteria’s.
• An appeal should clearly contain the grounds on the basis of which objection raised.
• It should be annexed with a copy of decree/order.
• The appellant has to submit the amount paid in the matter, where it's the main subject matter.
• Appellant has to deposit some security, in case it is asked by the court.
• It’s the Appellant court who is going to decide on the very first day of hearing that whether they are accepting appeal or dismissing the matter.
• If the appeal has been accepted, they will list the matter for the next date of hearing.
• Summon shall be served to the opposite party also
• One notice shall be served by the high court to the lower court also regarding challenging of decree and filing of An Appeal

Frequently Asked Questions