Court No. - 7
Case :- MATTERS UNDER ARTICLE 227 No. - 4548 of 2021 Petitioner :- Dinesh Kumar Ginodia Respondent :- Vinod Shukla Counsel for Petitioner :- Abhishek Bhushan,Adarsh Bhushan
Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard Sri Adarsh Bhushan, learned counsel for the petitioner and perused the record.
By means of this writ petition under Article 227 of the Constitution, the petitioner has prayed for following relief:-
"(i) To issue an order or direction to Respondent no. 1 to expedite the hearing and disposal of Original Suit No. 563 of 2012 (Dinesh Kumar Ginodia v. Vinod Shukla) pending before the Civil Judge (Junior Division) Court No. 4, Varanasi within a specified time as may be directed by this Hon'ble Court."
Since the suit is of the year 2012, the prayer for its expeditious disposal in a time bound period appears to be genuine. It is submitted by learned counsel for the petitioner that issues have not been framed. It is further submitted that though the defendant has put in appearance, but till date no written statement has been filed.
In the circumstances, this petition is disposed of with following directions:
(a) In the event written statement is not filed by the defendant- respondent, the court below may proceed to decide the suit, if possible, within a period of six months strictly in accordance with law, however, in the event defendant appears, the trial court shall proceed to frame issues considering the issues proposed by the rival parties, if any, within period of one month from the date of filing of copy of this order alongwith application before the trial court;
(b) The plaintiff shall conclude his evidence within period of three months and defendant thereafter shall also conclude their evidence within next three months;
(c) After the evidence is conclude by both the plaintiff and defendants, the trial court shall proceed to do final hearing and decide the suit within a further period of six months.
(d). In case if any miscellaneous application is pending under Order 7 Rule 11 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, the same should be considered and disposed of first. Likewise in case if counter claim is filed and any injunction application therein filed by the defendant and is pending then in such event the injunction application filed by the defendants if pressed, should be considered first and so far as the counter claim is concerned that should be heard and decided alongwith the suit.
It is further provided that the trial court shall abide by the procedure prescribed for hearing and disposal of the suit quite religiously. However, it is provided that the trial court shall fix priority in the hearing of suit in question in the order of preference in which other suits might have been expedited by this court in the past and to that extent time frame provided by this Court hereinabove, will only be directory.
It is further clarified that time frame provided for disposal of the case shall be deemed to be extended in the event concerned district is hit by another surge of pandemic (SARS COV- 2/COVID 19) resulting in the suspension of public movement and/or judicial working in the district concerned. Order available on the official website of the High Court will be taken to be authentic one.
Order Date :- 24.9.2021 Kuldeep