IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.R. No. 2607 of 2011 Date of Decision: 20.10.2011 Ram Kumar ....Petitioner. Versus Risal Singh ...Respondent. CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AJAY KUMAR MITTAL. PRESENT: Mr. Anil Ghanghas, Advocate for Mr. Ramender Chauhan, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Sumit Sangwan, Advocate for the respondent. AJAY KUMAR MITTAL, J. 1. The defendant-petitioner is aggrieved by order dated 22.3.2011 (Annexure P-3) passed by the trial Court whereby the application filed by him for setting aside the exparte order dated 2.6.2010 was dismissed. 2. The case of the defendant-petitioner is that he had filed a suit for recovery. The case was fixed on 2.6.2010 when due to mistake, the defendant-petitioner did not appear and the trial court proceeded against him exparte. An application was filed on 9.6.2010 with the averment that due to misunderstanding wrong date had been noted and the defendant-petitioner had, thus, failed to appear on 2.6.2010 which was unintentional. The trial court vide order dated 22.3.2011 dismissed the said application for setting aside the exparte order. C.R. No. 2607 of 2011 -2- 3. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and have perused the record. 4. Learned counsel for the defendant-petitioner submitted that the petitioner is an old person and was having memory loss due to which the date fixed as 2.6.2010 for hearing was missed by him. He further submitted that the application for setting aside the exparte proceedings was filed without any delay on 9.6.2010. 5. On the other hand, learned counsel for the plaintiff- respondent supported the order passed by the trial court. 6. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, in the facts and circumstances and in view of the fact that the application for setting aside the exparte order dated 2.6.2010 was filed immediately on 9.6.2010, it cannot be held that the defendant-petitioner had not appeared on 26.2.2010 deliberately or wilfully in order to delay the proceedings. 7. In view of the above, the present revision petition is allowed and the order dated 22.3.2011 is set aside. The trial court is directed to proceed in accordance with law. The trial court is also directed to expedite the trial and conclude the same expeditiously. October 20, 2011 (AJAY KUMAR MITTAL) gbs JUDGE