The Kerala High Court has clarified a significant aspect of civil procedure law, stating that interrogatories — written questions one party asks the other during a case — must not be used to conduct a roving or fishing inquiry. The Court emphasized that such questions must aim to strengthen the party’s own case, and their merit must be judged on the "test of prejudice".
The case involved a petition against a Trial Court order which allowed the plaintiff to deliver interrogatories to the defendant. Justice K Babu, who presided over the case, upheld the lower court’s decision and dismissed the petition.
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The petitioner had objected to the interrogatories, claiming that the plaintiff failed to produce the final judgment and decree in a related suit. However, the Court found that the inability to trace those documents amounted to a changed cause of action, which legally permits a fresh application to deliver interrogatories — even if a previous request was withdrawn.
“The plaintiff reported that the final judgment and decree… were not traced out. A subsequent application seeking leave to deliver interrogatories was filed on a changed cause of action. It cannot be said that the plaintiff is barred from making a second application on a subsequent cause of action,”
– Kerala High Court
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The Court added that India’s legal position under Order XI Rule 1 of the Civil Procedure Code does not permit the use of interrogatories to discover the nature of the opposing party's case. Instead, they should help the questioning party support its own case.
“The object and purpose of serving interrogatories is to enable a party to require information from his opponent for the purpose of maintaining his own case… This power must not be confined within narrow limits… but must be exercised with great care and caution,”
– Kerala High Court
Justice Babu further highlighted that interrogatories must not aim to discover facts that are strictly part of the other side’s evidence. The Court ruled that the interrogatories in this case were directly related to the issues under trial and did not test the credibility of the defendant.
Even though the trial was at its final stage, the Court said the core test remains whether allowing interrogatories would cause prejudice to the opposing party. Since the defendant did not claim any prejudice from answering the questions, the petition challenging the interrogatories had no merit.
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“The ultimate test shall be the 'test of prejudice'. In the present case, defendant No.1 has no case that any prejudice would be caused to him… The interrogatories relate to only the matters in question.”
– Kerala High Court
With this reasoning, the High Court refused to interfere with the Trial Court’s order and dismissed the plea.
Case No: OP(C) No. 2794 of 201
Title: K. C. Sivasankara Panicker v. K. C. Vasanthakumari @ K. C. Vasanthi and others
Judge: Justice K Babu
Petitioner’s Counsel: R. Rajesh Kormath, K. Dilip
Respondents’ Counsel: Meena A., Vinod Ravindranath, K. C. Kiran, M. R. Mini, M. Devesh, Anish Antony Anathazhath, Thareeq Anver K., and Nivedhitha Prem V.
