B. N. BANERJEE, J.

( 1 ) RULE 1 of Order XIII of the Code of Civil Procedure provides for production of documentary evidence "at the first hearing of the suit. " The effect of non-production of documents, at the first hearing, is dealt with in Rule 2 of Order XIII, in the following language:"no documentary evidence in the possession or power of any party which should have been put has not been produced in accordance with the requirements of Rule 1 shall be received at subsequent stage of the proceedings unless good cause is shown to the satisfaction of the Court for non-production thereof: and the Court receiving any such evidence 'shall record the reasons for so doing'" (underlined, here into single quotation for emphasis ).

( 2 ) RULES 1 and 2, referred to above, apply to documents in the possession and power of parties, on which they intend to rely, and also to documents which are ordered to be produced by the Court. Where documents are not in the possession and power of the parties, they cannot and therefore need not be produced at the first hearing. The language of Rule 1 is peremptory. This is so because the object of the rule is to prevent fraud by late production of suspi

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