: 1 : 7760-11-wp=.sxw USJ IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 7760 OF 2011 Wonderland Agro Fin Developers Ltd. .. Petitioners v/s. Mrs. Shobha Vilas Dumale .. Respondent ......... Mr. Abhijeet A. Desai for the petitioners Mr. V.R. Dumale with Ms. Kavita V. Dumale and Mansing Patil for the respondent ......... CORAM : R.Y.GANOO, J DATE : 23rd SEPTEMBER,2011. P.C. : 1. Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Learned advocate for the respondent waives service. By consent, petition is taken up for hearing. 2. The respondent had filed S.C. Suit No.1430 of 2010 in the Court of Civil Judge, Senior Division, Pune for certain reliefs. The suit summons was served on 6th August, 2010. Thereafter, the petitioners kept on seeking time to file the written statement. Ultimately, the request of the : 2 : 7760-11-wp=.sxw petitioners to grant time for written statement was rejected by order dated 24th December, 2010 and no written statement order was passed. Being aggrieved by this order, the petitioners filed an application before the learned trial Judge on 29th January, 2011 for setting aside the said no written statement order. The said application came to be rejected by the learned trial Judge by impugned order dated 18th March, 2011. This order is challenged in this petition. 3. I have heard learned advocate on both sides. Learned advocate for the petitioners submitted that since the responsibility to attend to this suit was entrusted to Managing Director of the petitioners and since the petitioners were being attending to their work, the said Managing Director could not contact the lawyer and give instructions for the purposes of filing written statement. Learned advocate for the petitioners submitted that the delay occasioned in not filing written statement can be compensated by directing petitioners to pay the costs as delay is of hardly 2 months. Learned advocate for the petitioners submits that the petition be granted. As against this, learned advocate for the respondent submitted that though the suit summons was served on 6th August, 2010, the petitioners did not respond and reasons given by the petitioners that their Managing : 3 : 7760-11-wp=.sxw Director was unable to attend to the work on account of the business of the company, cannot be considered as good ground. 4. I have considered the text of the petition as also the submissions. Noting the relevant dates, one could observe that the petitioners could have filed written statement without much of obstruction upto 6th November, 2010. Thereafter, at the relevant date i.e. 24th December 2010, when an application for adjournment was made, which came to be rejected and No written statement order came to be passed. The petitioners thereafter filed an application on 29th January, 2011 for setting aside the said No written statement order. Looking to the relevant fact, it is noted that there was negligence on the part of the petitioners in not filing written statement soon after the writ of summons was served. Even they have filed an application for setting aside No written statement order after a month. In my view, though there is a delay on the part of the petitioners in attending to the suit, looking to the claim involved in the suit, it would be proper and in the interest of justice to allow the petitioners to contest the suit by directing them to pay substantial costs of Rs.15,000/- to the respondents. In my view, this arrangement would meet ends of justice. Hence, following order is passed to dispose of the petition. : 4 : 7760-11-wp=.sxw ORDER (i) Order dated 18th March, 2011 passed by learned Civil Judge, Senior Division, Pune below Exh.19 is set aside. No written statement order passed on 24th December, 2010 is set aside. (ii) This Court is informed that the next date in the trial Court is 26th September, 2011. On 26th September, 2011, both the parties will appear before learned trial Judge and orally inform the learned trial Judge about this order and thereafter the learned trial Judge will give suitable date of 10 days or so. On that adjourned date, the petitioners shall file written statement in the Court. Before filing the written statement, the petitioners shall deposit a sum of Rs.15,000/- in the trial Court towards costs and learned trial Judge will ensure that the costs has been deposited and thereafter the written statement will be accepted. (iii) The respondent is at liberty to withdraw the said costs as and when deposited. (iv) It is clarified that if the costs is not deposited as mentioned above, petition shall stand dismissed and No written statement order shall stand confirmed. (R.Y.GANOO, J.)