Taro @ Tar Kaur @ Avtar Kaur vs Sukhpal Singh and others

L.N. Mittal, J.—Defendant No. 4 Taro @ Tar Kaur @ Avtar Kaur has invoked the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India by filing instant revision petition to assail order dated 12.12.2011 (Annexure P-1) passed by learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Barnala, thereby closing evidence of defendants by court order.

I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and perused the case file.

Counsel for the petitioner prayed that only one more effective opportunity may be granted to the petitioner to lead her evidence at own responsibility.

I have carefully considered the aforesaid prayer.

Perusal of `Grounds of Revision'' reveals that defendants were granted only three effective opportunities for their evidence before closing their evidence by court order. It is correct that proviso to Order 17 Rule 1 of the CPC stipulates that only three opportunities are required to be granted to a party for its evidence. However, this provision being rule of procedure is required to be followed with some flexibility and not with extreme rigidity. Therefore, in the instant case, ends of justice would be met if the petitioner is granted one more opportunity to lead her evidence at own responsibility, on payment of cost. While assessing the cost amount, it has to be kept in mind that suit land is about ten acres and defendant No. 4 has approached this Court belatedly i.e. two months after the passing of the impugned order.

I intend to dispose of the instant revision petition without issuing notice to respondents No. 1 to 3/plaintiffs so as to avoid further delay in the disposal of the suit and also to save the plaintiffs of the expenses they may have to incur in engaging counsel for this revision petition, if notice thereof is issued to them.

In view of the aforesaid, the instant revision petition is allowed. The trial court is directed to grant only one more effective opportunity to defendant No. 4-petitioner for her evidence at own responsibility, subject to payment of Rs. 5,000/- as cost precedent.