SC bars second suit while first pending

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has clarified that if proceedings in an earlier suit are already underway, any subsequent suit filed on the same cause of action may be dismissed under Order II Rule 2 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).

The apex court held that recording of evidence is not mandatory for such a determination; instead, the pleadings of both suits are sufficient to establish whether they stem from the same underlying cause or from different ones.

A two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi announced the verdict in case CPLA 3055/2023.