Gurcharan Singh vs Surjit Singh & Anr

The Supreme Court addressed the maintainability of an application for substitution of a deceased respondent in Special Leave Petition No. 7735 of 2010, citing Order XXII of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The Court held that if a respondent was deceased at the time of filing, the legal heirs can be substituted, treating the application as if it were an appeal filed for the first time against the legal representatives. The Court emphasized that any delay in filing such an application must be satisfactorily explained under Section 5 of the Limitation Act.