عدالت پرچہ ڈگری تیار کرنے کی پابند ھے اور پرچہ ڈگری تیار کرنے کی کوئی معیاد نہ ھے

 2022 MLD 1203

Court has to draw up a decree sheet and no limitation has been provided for drawing up such a decree sheet. It is a settled proposition of law that no person shall suffer for the act or omission or neglect of the court, or its officials, and the act of court shall not prejudice anyone.

It is not a part of the duty of a litigant to remind the court or its office about its obligation to draw up a decree after the judgment is announced in any suit. No one can deny that it was the duty of the Court to prepare and complete the decree sheet in line with its judgment. If it fails to perform its duty, was it fair to punish a party for default of the Court.

This Court while dealing with a similar type of situation declared that the court needed to draw up a decree sheet and the omission or neglect on the part of the court in the performance of its statutory duties cannot be taken as a ground for penalizing the party.

Furthermore, no time limit having been provided under Order XX Rule 7 of the CPC for preparation or signing of a decree after the pronouncement of a judgment, as it prescribes duty that the formal decree made out in a case should bear the date of judgment. However, the preparation of a decree is a ministerial act, the date of the signing of the decree remains uncertain. The august Supreme Court of Pakistan observed that limitation under Article 156 for filing an appeal runs from the signing of the decree and period elapsing between announcing of judgment and signing of decree to be accommodated.

Mere technicalities cannot defeat the rights of any person, although certain technicalities of law, where right is vested in the opposite party by efflux of time or where public policy demands so, may become relevant, however, the same cannot be given any preference by defeating the ends of justice, depriving a party of substantive rights, which accrued to it under the law and principle of justice.