Civil Revision No. 6351 of 2010 (O&M) -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Revision No. 6351 of 2010 (O&M) Date of decision : October 08, 2010 Balraj Singh Dhillon and another ....Petitioners versus Tarwinder Singh ....Respondent Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice L.N. Mittal Present : Mr. Vijay Lath, Advocate and Mr. Naveen Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioners L.N. Mittal, J. (Oral) CM No. 25206.CII of 2010 Allowed as prayed for. CR No. 6351 of 2010 Plaintiffs have filed the instant revision petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India impugning order dated 2.2.2010 passed by learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Jalandhar thereby closing evidence of the plaintiffs by court order. I have heard learned counsel for the petitioners and perused the case file. Learned counsel for the petitioners prays that only one more Civil Revision No. 6351 of 2010 (O&M) -2- opportunity may be granted to the plaintiffs for their remaining evidence at own responsibility and on payment of costs. I have carefully considered the aforesaid prayer. Perusal of the zimni orders of the trial court as shown by learned counsel for the petitioners reveals that the trial court granted seven effective opportunities to the plaintiffs/petitioners for their evidence. As per proviso to Order 17 Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, only three opportunities are required to be given to a party. However, the said provision being rule of procedure is directory in nature and not mandatory. The same has to be followed with some flexibility and not with extreme rigidity. At the same time the said provision cannot be ignored because this is a salutary provision to curtail delay in the disposal of the cases. Having said so, in the facts and circumstances of the case, I am of the considered view that ends of justice require that another opportunity be granted to the petitioners for their remaining evidence at own responsibility. The petitioners have to be burdened with heavy costs because the instant revision petition has also been filed after delay of almost eight months. I intend to dispose of the instant revision petition without issuing notice to the defendant-respondent so as to avoid further delay in the disposal of the suit and also to save the defendant-respondent of the expenses that he may have to incur for engaging counsel if notice of the revision petition is issued. In view of the aforesaid, the instant revision petition is allowed and the trial court is directed to grant only one more opportunity to the petitioners for their remaining evidence at own responsibility subject to payment of Rs 7500/- as costs precedent. Petitioners may take assistance of Civil Revision No. 6351 of 2010 (O&M) -3- the trial court for summoning evidence but not more than one opportunity shall be granted to the petitioners even on the ground of non service of any witness or non appearance of any witness in spite of service or on any other ground whatsoever. ( L.N. Mittal ) October 08, 2010 Judge 'dalbir'