DHARAM KAUR Vs. VIJAY SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this Revision Petition, the petitioner-defendant has challenged the order of the trial Court dated 7th March, 1989 declining his prayer to treat Issue Nos. 4, 6 and 11-A as preliminary issues.

(2.) Succinctly, the facts relevant to determine the questions raised in this petition are, that the plaintiffs filed a suit on 7th April, 1982 for the recovery of Rs. 2,91,920.87 paise. The suit was contested on various grounds and one of the preliminary objection raised was, the suit is not maintainable as earlier a suit was filed by the plaintiffs on the same cause of action, which was withdrawn without obtaining permission of the Court to file a fresh one on the same cause of action. On the pleadings of the parties, the following issues were framed by the trial Court on two different dates :

(3.) Originally the issues were framed on 14th June, 1983 except additional Issue No. 11-A which was framed on 16th December, 1988. The plaintiffs led their evidence and the suit was fixed for defendant's evidence, which as per the observations of the trial Court in the impugned order, has not been produced in spite of numerous adjournments. It was after about seven years of the institution of the suit that the petitioners preferred an application on 2nd February, 1989 under Order 14 Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure requesting the Court to treat Issue Nos. 4, 6 and 11-A as the preliminary issues and to decide them first.