The Hon’ble Apex Court has explained the following in this landmark judgment
- ‘principle of res judicata’
- difference between words “good cause” for nonappearance in O. IX, r. 7 and “sufficient cause” for the same purpose in O. IX, r. 13
- ‘res judicata’ could be as much applicable to different stages of the same suit as to findings on issues in different suits.
- If the entirety of the “hearing” of a suit has been completed and the Court being competent to pronounce judgment then and there, adjourns the suit merely for the purpose of pronouncing judgment under O. XX, r. 1, there is clearly no adjournment of “the hearing” of the suit, for there is nothing more to be heard in the suit.
- ln the present context when once the hearing starts, the Code contemplates only two stages in the trial of the suit:
- (1) Where the hearing is adjourned or
- (2) where the hearing is completed. Where the hearing is completed the parties have no further rights or privileges in the matter and it is only for the convenience of the Court that O. XX, r. 1 permits judgment to be delivered after an interval after the hearing is completed.
Arjun Singh vs Mohindra Kumar & Ors on 13 December, 1963