Shri Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1. The substantial questions of law involved, formulated and to be answered in the appeal preferred by defendant No.1, are as under :

“(1) Whether the trial Court is justified in rejecting the application under Order 9, Rule 7 of the CPC by order dated 13-02-2002 by recording a perverse finding?

(2) Whether the trial Court further justified in granting application under Section 151 of the CPC on 17-03-2003 filed by the plaintiffs and thereby declined to take the written statement filed by the defendant on record?”

2. In order to answer the substantial questions of law, following facts are required to be noticed.

(I) The respondents/plaintiffs preferred a suit for declaration of title and declaration of sale deed dated 29-08-1996 to be null and void and for permanent injunction in respect of suit land. The present appellant/defendant No.1 and deceased defendant No.2 Roop Lal whose name was deleted from the plaint subsequently due to his death, both engaged their counsel jointly to put appearance before the trial Court on their behalf. The counsel engaged by defendant No.1 pleaded no instructions on 03-05-1997 and consequently, the trial Court declared