Civil Revision No. 5288 of 2008 (1) In the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh Civil Revision No. 5288 of 2008 (O&M) Date of decision : 27.1.2009 Surinder Kumar and another ..... Petitioners vs Harmeet Chand ..... Respondent Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Mr. Sandeep Jasuja,Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. P. S. Khurana, Advocate, for the respondent. Rajesh Bindal J. Prayer in the present petition filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is for setting aside order dated 15.12.2007 and order dated 18.8.2008 passed by the Civil Judge (Junior Division), Fazilka, whereby on account of non-filing of written statement by the petitioners, their defence was struck off. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that written statement could not be filed on the date fixed for the reason that all the papers were to be collected. He further submitted that no effective proceedings have taken place after the passing of the impugned order. He has relied upon judgments of Hon'ble the Supreme Court in Kailash vs Nanhku and others, JT 2005 (4) SC 204; Salem Advocate Bar Association, Tamil Nadu vs Union of India, JT 2005 (6) SC 486 and M/s R. N. Jadi and Brothers and others vs Subhashchandra, JT 2007 (9) SC 165 to submit that Order VIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure has been held to be directory in nature and no mandatory. After hearing learned counsel for the parties, I find merit in the contentions raised by the learned counsel for the petitioners. It has been consistently opined by Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the judgments, referred to above, that Order VIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure which provides time for filing of written statement is directory in nature. Civil Revision No. 5288 of 2008 (2) Accordingly, the petition is accepted. The petitioner is granted one opportunity to file written statement before the learned court below on or before the next date subject to payment of Rs. 2,000/- as costs to the respondent. 27.1.2009 ( Rajesh Bindal) vs. Judge