PLD 2024 Lahore 47Civil Revision No. 50670 of 2020Muhammad Azam Versus Muhammad Anwar Khan and 6 others
Order XVI Rule 1 of the Code requires the parties to provide list of witnesses within seven (07) days of settlement of issues. If omission in this regard has taken place, it is imperative to obtain permission of the Court. The concerned Court is required to see availability of ‘good cause’ for excuse from such omission, keeping in view fact of each case and the attending circumstances. If the Court is satisfied as to availability of good cause then the permission can be granted for which reasons are required to be recorded.
It seems that after conclusion of evidence of respondent / plaintiff and one year after the given time, a list of witnesses is sought to be produced on a plea, which on the face of it appears to be false and which remained unsupported by anything on record or any affidavit of the relevant person. There is no cavil to the proposition, after the law settled in cases titled “Amjad Khan v. Muhammad Irshad (Deceased) through LRs” (2020 SCMR 2155) and “Muhammad Anwar and others v. Mst. Ilyas Begum and others” (PLD 2013 SC 255), that a party seeking such permission has to show ‘good cause’ on the basis of which the omission can be excused, which the Court has to see while keeping in view the facts and circumstances of each case. The parties cannot be granted such permissions, at belated stage, as a matter of right or as a matter of course, without assigning or establishing ‘good cause’. Admittedly, the litigants cannot be made to suffer due to fault of Court or its staff but such attribution cannot be accepted on the basis of unfounded and groundless or unjustifiable statements and which even otherwise remain unsupported by affidavit of the relevant person. A similar plea, of misplacing list of witnesses by Court-staff, when remained unconfirmed by anything from record.
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