C.R No. 1498 of 2009 ::1:: IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.R No. 1498 of 2009 Date of decision : July 23, 2009 Ram Singh, ...... Petitioner (s) v. Khem Chand, ...... Respondent(s) *** CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AJAY TEWARI *** Present : Ms. Monisha Lamba, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Sanjay Vij, Advocate for the respondent. *** 1. Whether Reporters of Local Newspapers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ? *** AJAY TEWARI, J (Oral) This petition has been filed against the order of the lower appellate Court allowing the appeal of the respondent and, thus, setting aside the exparte judgment and decree dated 12.1.1998. Counsel for the petitioner has argued that a perusal of the record reveals that the respondent had received notice of the exparte judgment and decree on 22.8.2008 and, thus, the application for setting aside the said judgment and decree filed on 30.10.2008 was clearly barred by limitation. C.R No. 1498 of 2009 ::2:: Even though this may be true yet the fact remains that the suit was originally fixed for 12.8.1997 for filing of written statement. However, since the Presiding Officer was to proceed on leave, he took up the file on 11.8.1997 and then adjourned the case to 5.9.1997. Counsel for the petitioner has argued that even if this was so yet it was incumbent for the respondent to have kept a track of the litigation and that the plea of the respondent that even though there may have been some negligence the same was attributable to the counsel cannot be accepted. I am of the opinion that the determining factor in this case is that the suit of the petitioner was decreed exparte at the stage when written statement had not yet been filed. Thus, even though the negligence on the part of the respondent/counsel cannot be ruled out, yet the present is a case where the award of costs would compensate the petitioner adequately. In the circumstances, this revision petition is disposed of with the modification that the exparte judgment and decree dated 12.1.1998 would be set aside subject to payment of Rs.25,000/- as costs by the respondent. The matter is remanded back to the trial Court. The parties through their counsel are directed to appear before the trial Court on 3.9.2009 on which date the respondent shall pay the said amount of costs by way of demand draft in favour of the petitioner, and the matter shall go on for further proceedings. ( AJAY TEWARI ) July 23, 2009. JUDGE `kk' C.R No. 1498 of 2009 ::3::