Civil Revision No. 5579 of 2008 (1) In the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh Civil Revision No. 5579 of 2008 (O&M) Date of decision : 5.2.2009 M/s Pirdan Sham Lal ..... Petitioner vs Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited and others ..... Respondents Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Mr. S. K. Singla,Advocate, for the petitioner. Ms. J. K. Gurna, Advocate, for respondents no. 1 and 2. Rajesh Bindal J. In the present petition, the challenge is to the orders dated 7.4.2008 and 14.5.2008 passed by the learned court below, whereby on account of non-filing of written statement by the petitioner, his defence was struck off. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that written statement could not be filed on the date fixed for the reason that no notice/summon has been served upon the petitioner, and he appeared in the case voluntarily on 8.1.2008 and he was not in possession of any copy of the petition. He submitted that on repeated requests, copy of the petition was not supplied by the counsel for the corporation/respondent and due to that the petitioner could not file reply. The defence of the petitioner was struck off on 7.4.2008. Even application filed by the petitioner to place on record reply was also dismissed on 14.5.2008. He further submitted that no effective proceedings have taken place after the passing of the impugned orders. He has relied upon judgments of Hon'ble the Supreme Court in Kailash vs Nanhku and others, JT 2005(4) SC 204; Salem Advocate Bar Association, Tamil Nadu v. Union of India, JT 2005(6) SC 486 and M/s R. N. Jadi and Brothers and others v. Subhashchandra, JT 2007(9) SC 165 to submit that Order VIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure has been held to be directory in nature and not mandatory. Civil Revision No. 5579 of 2008 (2) After hearing learned counsel for the petitioner, I find merit in the contentions raised by him. It has been consistently opined by Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the judgments, referred to above, that Order VIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure which provides time for filing of written statement is directory in nature. Accordingly, the petition is accepted. Written statement already filed before the learned court below is directed to be taken on record. However, the same shall be subject to payment of Rs. 2,500/- as costs to the respondents. 5.2.2009 ( Rajesh Bindal) vs. Judge