In Brief
Asian Hotels (North) Ltd granted licenses to shopkeepers for individual shops within its hotel premises since 1983. The licensor revoked these licenses in May 2020, prompting licensees to sue, claiming the revocation was illegal. During the suit, licensees sought to amend their plaint to challenge mortgages the hotel had created in favour of banks since 1982 and to implead the mortgagee banks as defendants. The Supreme Court held that in a suit confined to license revocation, licensees cannot be permitted to challenge pre-existing mortgages on the entire premises that were expressly acknowledged in their license agreements. Allowing such amendment would change the suit's nature and unjustly implead non-parties having no relevance to license revocation. The Court allowed the appeals and set aside the High Court's orders permitting amendment and impleadment.
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