Cause of Action for Filing a Case before Civil Court – Cause of action is the reason for filing a case before a civil court, for in absence of it there is no basis for dragging someone to the court.
Before one approaches a court, one has to have a grievance arising out of some action or inaction on part of the opposite party. The other condition is that the opposite party should be legally bound to do or not to do what it did or did not do. In other words, it needs to be established that the party against which the case has been filed was duty bound to do or refrain from doing what it did or failed to do. Cause of action is relevant not only for the legal outcome of the case but is also relevant in computation of the period of limitation after which a legal claim becomes stale and cannot be sustained in a court of law unless the court itself condones the delay. To understand cause of action better an illustration would be useful. M/s Dureja Enterprises, a Delhi based company, dealing in petroleum products, enters into an agreement with M/s ABC Enterprises, Chennai, for the supply of one thousand gallon of diesel, before March 1, 2004 and makes advance payment. M/s ABC Enterprises fails to supply the diesel. On March 1, 2004 M/s Dureja Enterprises has a cause of action to file a civil suit claiming damages from M/s ABC Enterprises.
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