BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF CPC

CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE

WHAT IS THE CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE?

If any individual person's right is affected or violated, then it comes under civil offence. The civil procedure code is a procedural law. It helps in obtaining remedies if rights are violated. 

There are a total of 158 sections and 51 orders in the civil procedure code. 

HISTORY OF THE CODE

In the year 1859, during British rule, each court had its own set of rules and followed its own set of rules. A civil code was needed to provide uniformity to civil law. This led to the formation of the civil procedure code. Thus we see that the civil procedure code is an enactment from the pre-independent era. 

The legislative council of India enacted the civil procedure code as Act/VIII of 1859. However, the act did not fulfil its objective as it did not apply to the Privy Council (which was the supreme court during that period) and Federal Court (also called the 'Sadr Diwani Adalat').

The Indian High Courts Act was passed in 1861. Through The Indian High Courts Act, High Courts were established in Madras, Bombay and Calcutta and the code of 1859 (the civil procedure code) was made applicable to the high courts. 

This code was amended many times and then it was replaced with the Code of Civil Procedure 1877. It was again amended in the years 1878 and 1879 the third code of civil procedure was enacted in the year 1882. It was further amended several times until the present code of civil procedure was passed in the year 1908 overshadowing the defects of the code of 1882. 

The Civil Procedure Code came into force on the first of January 1909. The Civil Procedure Code has been amended more than 30 times during the period from 1909 to 1976. Later it was also amended again recently in the years 1999 and 2002.