MANGAR YADAV Vs. LALPATI DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who is the defendant in Title Suit No. 35 of 2014, is aggrieved of the order dated 27.02.2015 by which he has been debarred from filing the written statement and the suit has proceeded ex-parte against him.

(2.) Title Suit No. 35 of 2014 has been instituted for a decree for declaration that sale-deed no. 8919 dated 19.12.2000 executed in favour of the defendant is illegal and void ab-initio. The plaintiff has pleaded that without payment of the consideration amount, by playing fraud the defendant has got the sale-deed dated 19.12.2000 executed from the plaintiff. Before that, Title Suit No. 12 of 2014 was instituted by the petitioner for declaration of his right, title and interest over the suit land. The petitioner has claimed his title over the suit property by virtue of the sale-deed dated 19.12.2000 which is under challenge in Title Suit No. 35 of 2014. For not filing the written statement within the time prescribed under Order VIII Rule 1 CPC, the petitioner has taken a stand that under a misconception he refused to accept the summons issued to him in Title Suit No. 35 of 2014, however, when his counsel conducting Title Suit No. 12 of 2014 informed him about institution of Title Suit No. 35 of 2014, he filed his written statement with an application for taking his written statement on record.

(3.) Order VIII Rule 1 CPC provides that within 30 days of service of summons upon him the defendant shall file his written statement of defence. This period of 30 days, however, has now been extended to 90 days under the proviso to Order VIII Rule 1 CPC which has been incorporated through the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2002. By now it is well-settled that the period provided under Order VIII Rule 1 CPC for filing written statement is binding on the parties, but not on the court [refer "Rani Kusum (Smt.) Vrs. Kanchan Devi (Smt.) reported in, 2005 6 SCC 705"] and for the reasons to be recorded by the court, on an application of the defendant, the trial court may permit the defendant to file written statement beyond the statutory period provided under Order VIII Rule 1 CPC [refer "Kailash Vrs. Nanhku & others reported in, 2005 4 SCC 480"].