COLONIAL CONSTRUCTION PVT LTD Vs. NARAYANAM NAGESWAR RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard counsel for the appellants and Sri Ambadipudi Satyanarayana, Counsel for the respondents.

(2.) This appeal is preferred against the order dt.15.07.2020 in IA.No.1065 of 2017 in OS.No.173 of 2017 of the XVI Additional District & Sessions Judge, Ranga Reddy District at Malkajgiri, who dismissed the said application filed under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, by the appellants, who are defendants in the said suit.

(3.) The Docket proceedings indicate that the said suit was filed as a Summary Suit and there was a change in the Presiding Officer in June, 2019. They also indicate that the parties were not ready on 04.07.2019, and on 20.08.2019 the appellants were absent but the respondents were present. Thereafter also, the matter underwent further adjournments and on 10.03.2020, the Court below heard the respondents again and treated the appellant as heard and posted the matter for orders. In the meantime there was a lock down, which intervened on account of COVID-19 Pandemic situation, and finally, the orders came to be pronounced on 15.07.2020 in IA.No.1065 of 2017, four months after the matter was heard and reserved. It is possible that the Presiding Officer of the Court below might not have remembered the contentions raised by the parties when he pronounced the order. We are also of the opinion that the appellants should be head afresh, since the appellants do not appear to have been heard either on 10.03.2020 or on the earlier dates.