VISHNU LAL JHANGAR Vs. SHANTA CHAKRAVARTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners are defendants of Title Suit No. 12 of 2002, which was filed by the plaintiff-opposite party for declaration of her title and restoration of her possession over the suit properties from which she claimed to have been dispossessed on 16-9-2001.

(2.) The petitioners are aggrieved by order dated 19-8-2004 passed in the aforesaid suit, by which the learned Subordinate Judge-II, Gaya rejected their petitioner for recall of its earlier order dated 2-3-2004 debarring them from filing their written statement and for accepting the written statement filed by them.

(3.) The short facts of this case are that the suit was filed by the sole opposite party in the year 2002, whereafter notices were issued to the defendants and on 24-6-2002 the summons were said to have been served upon them. The defendants-petitioners appeared in the suit on 7-11-2003 claiming that they learned about the suit just before it and had no earlier knowledge. However, when more than three months passed even after the appearance of the defendants and they did not file their written statement the Court below by its order dated 2-3-2004 debarred them from filing their written statement as per the provision of Order VIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure (hereinafter referred to as 'the Code' for the sake of brevity).