( 1 ) THE petitioner was the defendant in a suit brought by the opposite party for recovery of a sum of Rs. 3562/8/ -. On the 4th August 1956, the court below passed an order fixing the 3rd December 1956 for the hearing of the suit. On the 3rd December 1956, an application appears to have been filed by the defendant praying for an adjournment of the case on the ground that his lawyer was ill. This prayer was refused. The learned Judge remarked: "as the lawyer reportedly fell ill on the 1st December, there was enough time to engage another lawyer by this time. Parties must be ready at once. " Later the same day, when the case was called on for hearing, the defendant was absent on call and the case was taken up for ex parte hearing and was decreed ex parte. On the 18th December 1956, an application under Order 9, Rule 13 of the Civil Procedure Code was made praying that the ex parte decree may be set aside as the applicant had been prevented by sufficient cause, namely, illness of his lawyer, from appearing in court on the 3rd December 1956. Evidence was given by the lawyer himself that he was actually lying seriously ill on the 3rd December; that in fact he had fallen ill in court o

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