Civil Revision No. 6816 of 2011 --1-- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA, CHANDIGARH Civil Revision No. 6816 of 2011(O&M) Date of decision. 08.11.2011 Mehmooda and another .... Petitioners Versus Tahir and others ...... Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIJENDER SINGH MALIK Present: Mr.Mohd. Yousaf, Advocate for the petitioners. **** Vijender Singh Malik, J. This is a revision petition brought by Mehmooda and Kausar Parveen, the legal representatives of Gulam Mohammad, who had been arrayed as defendant no.1 in a suit brought for the relief of declaration to the effect that the plaintiffs are owners in possession of a house bearing No.B-15/685(old) and B-23/414 (new) shown red in the site plan with letters ABCD, situated in Mohalla Kacha Kot, Malerkotla, as also for permanent injunction restraining the defendants from dispossessing the plaintiffs therefrom. The petitioners have questioned the legality of the order dated 17.05.2011(Annexure P-3) passed by learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Malerkotla, vide which the evidence of the petitioners has been closed by order of the court and the order dated 18.10.2011 (Annexure P-5) , vide which learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Malerkotla has dismissed their application for permission to appear as witnesses in the case. Civil Revision No. 6816 of 2011 --2-- On 17.05.2011, defendant no.2 closed his evidence through his counsel. Learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Malerkotrla has found defendant no.1 to have brought no evidence. A request was made for adjournment but learned trial court found many opportunities to have been availed by the defendants since 29.09.2008 and as the case was one of the oldest cases, no justification was found to adjourn the case for evidence of defendant no.1. As such, the evidence of defendant no.1 was closed by order of the court. Subsequently, application was filed by Mehmooda and Kausar Parveen, the legal representatives of deceased Gulam Mohammad for permission to appear as witnesses in the said case. Vide order dated 18.10.2011 learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Malerkotla has dismissed the said application. I have heard Shri Mohd. Yousaf, learned counsel for the petitioners and have gone through the record. The circumstance that the petitioners had sought permission to appear as witnesses in the case would reveal that the evidence of the defendant Gulam Mohammad had been closed without the defendant appearing as his own witness. The petitioners are women, who are from Muslim Community and they can be said to be purdah nashin women. They might not have come to know about the requirement of their appearing as a witness in the case. The trial court has closed the evidence of defendant no.1 for the fact that opportunities have been availed by the defendants. The opportunities were not exclusively availed by defendant Civil Revision No. 6816 of 2011 --3-- no.1 and the number of opportunities availed by the defendants is not specified in the impugned order. The application for permission to appear as witnesses made by the petitioners has been dismissed for a very strange reason. The dismissal of the application of the plaintiffs to examine themselves in rebuttal evidence has been taken as the reason for dismissal of the application of the petitioners, taking the same as a device to prolong the proceedings. Learned counsel for the petitioners has submitted that only one opportunity is required by the petitioners as the petitioners alone are to appear as there own witnesses. The same to me does not appear to be going to cause any delay in disposal of the suit. No witness is to be summoned in this case. The petitioners would themselves appear in the trial court and could be examined on one date. Keeping in view the interest of justice, the petitioners deserve one opportunity to appear as their own witnesses to support the defence taken by their father. Consequently, the revision petition is allowed subject to payment of Rs.2000/- as costs. Learned trial court is directed to give one opportunity to the petitioners for appearing as their own witnesses in the said case. (VIJENDER SINGH MALIK) 08.11.2011 JUDGE dinesh