The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India on August 12, 2026, delivered a significant judgment in the case of Bassanna (Since Deceased) by LRs. and Others versus Bhimanna and Others. The case was an appeal against a 2022 Karnataka High Court order that had quashed a first appellate court order that had admitted a composite appeal filed by the plaintiff against a common judgement passed in two civil suits. The Supreme Court had to determine whether a single composite appeal challenging a common judgement passed in two suits instituted by the same plaintiff is maintainable under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
The predecessor of the appellants had filed two suits in respect of the same property which were clubbed for trial and dismissed by one common judgement. The plaintiff has filed composite appeal with certified copies of both decrees and paid full court fee for both the suits. Both suits were decreed by the first appellate court but the High Court was of the view that two separate appeals were necessary and on this technical ground alone the High Court set aside the decision.
However, a Bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Atul S. Chandurkar found the approach of the High Court to be flawed. The Court observed that where two suits filed by the same plaintiff are clubbed together, tried together and decided by a common judgement, a composite appeal against such a judgement is maintainable if the court fees for both the decrees are paid and the certified copies of both the decrees are filed. Not filing separate memoranda was at most a curable defect of ‘form’ and the plaintiff should have been permitted to cure it rather than lose his substantive right of appeal.
In its final order, the Supreme Court has set aside the judgment of the High Court and remanded both the second appeals to the High Court for fresh adjudication on merits. The judgment reiterates that procedural technicalities should not defeat a litigant’s substantive right of appeal and clarifies the maintainability of composite appeals against common judgments in suits filed by the same plaintiff.