Company : Sol Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Website : www.courtkutchehry.com Order-17 Adjournments CONTENTS 1. Court may grant time and adjourn hearing 2. Procedure if parties fail to appear on day fixed 3 . Court may proceed notwithstanding either party to fail to produce evidence, etc Order-17 Adjournments Order-17 Adjournments 1. Court may grant time and adjourn hearing :- 1(1) The Court may, if sufficient cause is shown, at any stage of the suit grant time to the parties or to any of them. and may from time to time adjourn the hearing of the suit for reasons to be recorded in writing: Provided that no such adjournment shall be granted more than three times to a party during hearing of the suit.";] 2 Cost of adjournment.-In every such case the Court shall fix a day for the further hearing of the suit, and 2 ["shall make such order as to costs occasioned by the adjournment or such higher costs as the Court deems fit"]: Provided that,- (a) when the hearing of the suit has commenced, it shall be continued from day to day until all the witnesses in attendance have been examined, unless the Court finds that, for the exceptional reasons to be recorded by it, the adjournment of the hearing beyond the following day is necessary, (b) no adjournment shall be granted at the request of party, except where the circumstances are beyond the control of that party, (c) the fact that the pleader of a party is engaged in another court, shall not be a ground for adjournment, (d) where the illness of a pleader or his inability to conduct the case for any reason, other than his being engaged in another court, is put forward as a ground for adjournment, the Court shall not grant the adjournment unless it is satisfied that the party applying for adjournment could not have engaged another pleader in time, (e) where a witness is present in Court but a party or his pleader is not present or the party or his pleader, though present in Court is not ready to examine or cross-examine the witness, the Court may, if it thinks fit, record the statement of the witness and pass such orders as it thinks fit dispensing with the examination-in-chief or cross-examination of the witness, as the case may be, by the party or his pleader not present or not ready as aforesaid.] 1. Substituted for " (1) The Court may, if sufficient cause is shown, at any stage of the suit grant time to the parties or to any of them, and may from time to time adjourn the hearing of the suit. ", vide " Order-17 Adjournments" Dt.December 30, 1999 Published in Received the assent of the President on the 30th December, 1999 and was published in the Gazette of India, (Extra.), Part II sec.1, No. 59, dated December 30, 1999 2. Substituted for "may make such order as it thinks fit with respect to the costs occasioned by the adjournment", vide " Order- 17 Adjournments" Dt.December 30, 1999 Published in Received the assent of the President on the 30th December, 1999 and was published in the Gazette of India, (Extra.), Part II sec.1, No. 59, dated December 30, 1999 2. Procedure if parties fail to appear on day fixed :- Where, on any day to which the hearing of the suit is adjourned, the parties or any of them fail to appear, the Court may proceed to dispose of the suit in one of the modes directed in that behalf by Order IX or make such other order as it thinks fit, 3. Court may proceed notwithstanding either party to fail to produce evidence, etc :- Where any party to a suit to whom time has been granted fails to produce his evidence, or to cause the attendance of his witnesses, or to perform any other act necessary to the further progress of the suit, for which time has been allowed [the Court may, notwithstanding such default,- (a) if the partics are present, proceed to decide the suit forthwith; or (b) if the parties are, or any of them is, absent, proceed under rule 2.] High Court Amendment Madhya Pradesh.-(1) The following proviso shall be added to Order XVII, rule 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure : "Provided that in the case when there is default under these rules as well as default of appearance under rule 2 the Court will proceed under rule 2."^