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18. Respondents (Defendant nos.1, 2, 4 and 7) filed written statement to the original plaint. They prayed the court to pass a decree in favour of the appellant for a sum of Rs.27,30,339.45/. This is an admission of the respondents in favour of the appellant to an extent of Rs.27,30,339.45/-. The appellant now cannot be permitted to take a complete somersault.

19. The respondents also submitted that the appellant cannot now seek recovery of possession of the property. To grant amendment at this stage would not only have the effect of appellant getting rid of the admissions made in the original plaint but defeating the provisions of Order XII Rule 6 of the CPC by changing the cause of action and entire character of the suit and causing serious prejudice to the respondents. The respondents relied on the decision of this court in Usha Balashaheb Swami & Others v. Kiran Appaso Swami & Others1 wherein the court has held that by way of amendment, admission made in pleadings and particularly in the plaint cannot be sought to be omitted or got rid of. The Court further observed that a prayer for amendment of the plaint stand on different footing. The relevant observations of the Court are set out as under:

"19. ..a prayer for amendment of the plaint and a prayer for amendment of the written statement stand on different footings. The general principle that amendment of pleadings cannot be allowed so as to alter materially or substitute cause of action or the nature of claim applies to amendments to plaint. It has no counterpart in the principles relating to amendment of the written statement. Therefore, addition of a new ground of defence or substituting or altering a defence or taking inconsistent pleas in the written statement would not be objectionable while adding, altering or substituting a new cause of action in the plaint may be objectionable.

This judgment has been referred in Usha Balashaheb Swami (supra) and the court observed that Modi Spinning's case (supra) was a clear authority for the proposition that once a written statement contained an admission in favour of the plaintiff, by amendment such an admission of the defendant, cannot be withdrawn and if allowed, it would amount to totally displacing the case of the plaintiff.

24. In the same judgment of Usha Balashaheb Swami (supra), the Court dealt with a number of judgments of this Court and laid down that the prayer for amendment of the plaint and a prayer for amendment of the written statement stand on different footings. The general principle that amendment of pleadings cannot be allowed so as to alter materially or substitute the cause of action or the nature of claim applies to amendments to plaint. It has no counterpart in the principles relating to amendment of the written statement. Therefore, addition of a new ground of defence or substituting or altering a defence or taking inconsistent pleas in the written statement would not be objectionable while adding, altering or substituting a new cause of action in the plaint may be objectionable.

"It is true that, if a plaintiff seeks to alter the cause of action itself and to introduce indirectly, through an amendment of his pleadings, an entirely new or inconsistent cause of action, amounting virtually to the substitution of a new plaint or a new cause of action in place of what was originally there, the Court will refuse to permit it if it amounts to depriving the party against which a suit is pending of any right which may have accrued in its favour due to lapse of time. But, mere failure to set out even an essential fact does not, by itself, constitute a new cause of action. A cause of action is constituted by the whole bundle of essential facts which the plaintiff 15 AIR 1961 SC 325 16 (1978) 2 SCC 91 must prove before he can succeed in his suit. It must be antecedent to the institution of the suit. If any essential fact is lacking from averments in the plaint the cause of action will be defective. In that case, an attempt to supply the omission has been and could sometime be viewed as equivalent to an introduction of a new cause of action which, cured of its shortcomings, has really become a good cause of action. This, however, is not the only possible interpretation; to be put on every defective state of pleadings. Defective pleadings are generally curable, if the cause of action sought to be brought out was not ab initio completely absent. Even very defective pleadings may be permitted to be cured, so as to constitute cause of action where there was none, provided necessary conditions, such as payment of either any additional court fees, which may be payable, or, of costs of the other side are complied with. It is only if lapse of time has barred the remedy on a newly constituted cause of action that the Courts should, ordinarily, refuse prayers for amendment of pleadings."