Civil Revision No. 1278 of 2009 (1) In the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh Civil Revision No. 1278 of 2009 (O&M) Date of decision : 8.5.2009 Sat Pal and others ..... Petitioners vs Risala and others ..... Respondents Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Mr. Rajinder Goyal, Advocate, for the petitioners. Rajesh Bindal J. In the present petition, the challenge is to the order dated 3.6.2008 passed by the learned court below, whereby on account of non- filing of written statement by the petitioners, their defence was struck off. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that four cases of the petitioners are pending in the court of learned Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), Guhla, and due to communication gap between the petitioners and their counsel the written statement and reply to the stay application could not be filed on the date fixed. He further states that written statement was ready but due to the reason which was beyond the control of the petitioners and not intentional, the same could not be filed in time. He further submitted that no effective proceedings have taken place after the passing of the impugned order. He 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 v. Union of India, JT 2005(6) SC 486 and M/s R. N. Jadi and Brothers and others v. 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 not mandatory. After hearing learned counsel for the petitioners, I find merit in the contentions raised by him. 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. 1278 of 2009 (2) Accordingly, the petition is accepted. The petitioners are permitted to file written statement and reply to the stay application before the learned court below on or before the next date of hearing which is stated to be 11.6.2009. The issues, if already framed, may be modified or reframed keeping in view the stand of the petitioners/defendants in the written statement to be filed. However, the same shall be subject to payment of Rs. 3,000/- as costs to the respondents/plaintiffs. 8.5.2009 ( Rajesh Bindal) vs. Judge