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LL.B. (Three Years) Sem 4 Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act Oct 2025 Question Paper with Solutions

SPPU Solved Question Papers

Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act

Previous Year Question Paper with Solution

LL.B. (Three Years) · Sem 4

Oct 2025 Examination

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Mumbai

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First published on munotes.in on 5 November 2026.

Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.

Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.

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munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Savitribai Phule Pune University. It is not affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University, and is not endorsed by it.

The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.

The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Savitribai Phule Pune University at the Oct 2025 examination.

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Contents

The questions below are the paper as Savitribai Phule Pune University set it at the Oct 2025 examination, in the order it was set.

MarksPage

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The Paper as Set

The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the Oct 2025 examination, reproduced as Savitribai Phule Pune University set them, in the order it set them. Nothing has been reworded, added or left out. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.

Duration 3 hours  ·  Total marks 70  ·  13 questions answered

How to use this volume

Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.

Read the original question paper

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SECTION I

PART A

Answer any Two

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Q1)What is Adjournment. State the grounds on which-adjournment can be granted and refused by the Court.[15]

Answer

For full marks, cover: what an adjournment is and why the law controls it; the power in Order XVII Rule 1(1) and its limit of three adjournments; costs under Rule 1(2) and section 35B; the five clauses of the proviso to Rule 1(2); the effect of absence and default (Rules 2 and 3); Salem Advocate Bar Association on the three-adjournment limit; the grounds on which an adjournment is granted; the grounds on which it is refused; a worked example; a conclusion.

Introduction

To adjourn a hearing is to put it off to a later date. A court may need to do this for good reasons. A witness may be ill, or a document may not have arrived.

But adjournments are also the main cause of delay in civil courts. A party who wants to tire out the other side asks for date after date. The Code therefore gives the court a power to adjourn, and then fences that power with conditions.

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1. The power: Order XVII Rule 1(1)

Order XVII deals with adjournments. Rule 1(1) says that the court may, if sufficient cause is shown, grant time to the parties at any stage of the suit. It may adjourn the hearing from time to time. It must record its reasons in writing.

Three points follow from these words.

  1. Sufficient cause must be shown. An adjournment is not a right. The party asking for it must give a real reason.
  2. The power exists at any stage of the suit, from the first hearing to final arguments.
  3. The court must record reasons. A bare order "adjourned" is not enough.

2. The limit of three adjournments

The proviso to Rule 1(1) says that no adjournment shall be granted more than three times to a party during the hearing of the suit. Sub-rule (1), with this proviso, was substituted by the amending Act of 1999, with effect from 1 July 2002.

The limit is per party. The plaintiff and the defendant each have their own count.

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3. Costs of an adjournment: Rule 1(2) and section 35B

Rule 1(2) requires the court to fix a day for the further hearing. It shall make orders as to the costs caused by the adjournment, or such higher costs as it thinks fit.

Section 35B goes further. Suppose a party fails to take a step required on a date, or obtains an adjournment to take a step or produce evidence. The court may, for recorded reasons, order him to pay the other party costs that fairly cover the expense of attending court that day.

Payment of these costs by the next date is a condition precedent. A plaintiff who does not pay cannot prosecute the suit further. A defendant who does not pay cannot prosecute his defence further.

4. The proviso to Rule 1(2): five rules

The proviso to Rule 1(2) was substituted in 1976. It lays down five rules.

  1. Clause (a), day-to-day hearing. Once the hearing has begun, it shall continue from day to day until all the witnesses present have been examined. The court may adjourn beyond the next day only for exceptional reasons, recorded by it.
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  1. Clause (b), the party's own request. No adjournment shall be granted at a party's request, except where the circumstances are beyond the control of that party.
  2. Clause (c), the busy pleader. The fact that the pleader is engaged in another court shall not be a ground for adjournment.
  3. Clause (d), the ill pleader. The pleader may be ill, or unable to act for another reason. The court shall then not adjourn unless satisfied that the party could not have engaged another pleader in time.
  4. Clause (e), the waiting witness. A witness may be present while the party or pleader is absent or not ready. The court may then record the witness's statement. It may dispense with the examination-in-chief or cross-examination by the party who is absent or not ready.

5. Absence and default: Rules 2 and 3

Rule 2 applies where the parties, or any of them, do not appear on the adjourned date. The court may dispose of the suit in one of the ways in Order IX, such as dismissal for default or an ex parte hearing. It may also make any other order it thinks fit.

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The Explanation to Rule 2 adds a rule for the late stage of a trial. If the evidence of a party, or a substantial part of it, is already recorded, the court may proceed as if that party were present.

Rule 3 applies where a party who was given time fails to produce evidence or witnesses, or to do another necessary act. The court may decide the suit at once if the parties are present. If they are absent, it proceeds under Rule 2.

6. Salem Advocate Bar Association: the limit read down

The proviso limiting adjournments to three was challenged as too rigid. A party may fall ill, or a flood may close the roads, more than three times in a long suit.

In Salem Advocate Bar Association v. Union of India, (2005) 6 SCC 344, decided on 2 August 2005, the Supreme Court read the proviso to Rule 1 and Rule 2 together, with clause (b) of the proviso to Rule 1(2). So read, Order XVII does not forbid an adjournment where the circumstances are beyond the control of the party. In such a case there is no limit on the number.

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The Court said that the proviso must be read down in this way to save it from Article 14. Outside such hard cases, an adjournment beyond three may still be granted, but on higher, and even punitive, costs. The Court also stressed that no adjournment, not even the first, is a matter of course. It must be granted only on sufficient cause.

7. Grounds on which an adjournment is granted

From the rules and the case, an adjournment is usually granted on these grounds.

  1. Illness or death. Serious illness of the party or a material witness, or a death in the family, shown by a medical certificate or other proof.
  2. Witness not served. A witness summons was applied for in time but not served, through no fault of the party.
  3. Pleader genuinely unable to act, where the party could not have engaged another pleader in time (clause (d)).
  4. Documents not yet received. A certified copy or record was applied for in time but has not arrived.
  5. Amendment or new party. The pleadings are amended, or a legal representative is brought on record, and the other side needs time to answer.
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  1. A real chance of settlement, where the court thinks it right to give the parties time, for example after a reference under section 89.
  2. Reasons of the court. The court itself has no time that day, or the presiding officer is on leave.
  3. Events beyond control, such as a strike, a curfew or a natural calamity (clause (b); Salem Advocate Bar Association).

In each case the court records its reasons and fixes costs where the delay is a party's doing.

8. Grounds on which an adjournment is refused

An adjournment is refused in these cases.

  1. No sufficient cause. The reason is vague, untrue or unproved.
  2. The party's own lack of diligence. He did not apply for summons in time, or did not pay process fees.
  3. The pleader is busy elsewhere. Clause (c) expressly bars this ground.
  4. Another pleader could have been engaged (clause (d)).
  5. The trial has begun and witnesses are present. The hearing must go on from day to day (clause (a)), and the court may record the witness under clause (e).
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  1. The party has already had three adjournments, unless the circumstances are beyond his control (Salem Advocate Bar Association).
  2. Unpaid costs. Costs ordered under section 35B on the last date have not been paid. The defaulting party cannot proceed at all.
  3. The aim is delay. The record shows a pattern of dates sought to wear out the other side.

9. Remedies after a refusal

An order granting or refusing an adjournment is an interlocutory order. It is not a decree. No appeal lies against it under Order XLIII.

If the refusal causes injustice, the party may seek correction in the final appeal against the decree. In a clear case of a jurisdictional error, the High Court may be moved in its supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution.

10. A worked example

Meera sues Arun for recovery of Rs. 4 lakh in the Civil Judge's court at Pune. Arun has already taken three adjournments, each on the ground that his pleader was busy in the High Court.

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  1. On the fourth date, Arun asks for time again because his pleader is engaged in another court. The court must refuse. Clause (c) bars this ground, and Arun has used his three adjournments.
  2. Suppose instead that Arun produces a hospital certificate showing he was admitted the night before. This is a circumstance beyond his control. Under Salem Advocate Bar Association, the court may adjourn despite the three-adjournment limit, recording its reasons.
  3. Meera's witness has come from Satara and is present. Under clause (e), the court may record his evidence that day, even if Arun's pleader is not ready to cross-examine.
  4. The court may order Arun to pay Meera's costs of the day under section 35B. Arun must pay them by the next date, or he cannot carry his defence further.
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Conclusion

Conclusion. An adjournment is the postponement of a hearing to a later date. Under Order XVII Rule 1 a court may adjourn only on sufficient cause, for recorded reasons, and not more than three times to a party. It must order costs, and section 35B makes payment of those costs a condition for going on with the case. The proviso to Rule 1(2) requires day-to-day hearing and bars adjournments for a busy pleader. Salem Advocate Bar Association reads the three-adjournment limit down, so that it does not apply where the circumstances are beyond the party's control. The result is a balance: time for genuine difficulty, refusal and costs for delay.

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