Govinda Menon, J.-This is an appeal against the order of the District Judge of Bellary refusing to set aside an order dismissing a suit for default. What happened was that on 8th September, 1950, when the suit came on for hearing the predecessor of the learned Judge, from whose order this appeal is filed, passed an order stating that certain issues had been decided against the contentions raised by the defendants, and that the suit would stand posted to 18th September, 1950, for the plaintiff’s rejoinder. On 18th September, 1950 there was no appearance, and the learned District Judge thereupon passed an order in the following terms:

“Issues 2 and 7: Finding negativing the contentions of the defendants was given by this Court on 8-9-1950.

Issue 3: The plaintiff and his pleader are absent. I decide the third issue in the affirmative”.

In the result the suit was dismissed with costs. An affidavit in support of the application to set aside the order of dismissal for default was sworn to by Mr. D. Venugopalachariar, pleader for the plaintiff-appellant, and therein he states that on 18th September, 1950, the rejoinder was ready, typed and signed by the plaintiff and was in the bundle of records relating to O.S. No. 2 of 1947. This along with another bundle was sent by the advocate through his clerk in order that it might be filed in court at the proper time through any of the juniors of Mr. Venugopalachariar, who would be present in that Court. The learned pleader further states that at 11-30 a.m. the District Court passed an order stating that the rejoinder had not been filed, and that, as the plaintiff and his pleader were absent the third issue was decided in the affirmative, and the suit was accordingly dismissed with costs. The reason why Mr. Venugopalachariar could not be present was that he had been engaged in some land acquisition proceedings before the Subordinate Judge’s Court, and that his juniors were engaged in the Munsif’s Court at Bellary. According to the learned pleader, whenever he had work in the District Court, either he or one of his juniors would be usually present in court to attend to that kind of work. But on that particular day it unfortunately happened that the junior, Mr. Chenna Basappa, could not be present in the District Court, as he had to appear in the Munsif’s Court. These facts have not been seriously disputed by the advocate who appeared for the defendants in the Court below. The only contention put forward there was that the dismissal of the suit was under Order 17, rule 3 and not under Order 17, rule 2, and that therefore the provisions of Order 9, rule 9 would not apply to the facts of the present case.

In our opinion, the learned District Judge erred in not accepting the statements contained in the affidavit of Mr. Venugopalachariar. We are of opinion that there was sufficient reason for the non-appearance of the plaintiff or his pleader when the case was called in Court. It might be remarked that the usual procedure in such circumstances would be not to file the rejoinder earlier in the office, so that the same might be sent over to the Court when the case is taken up, but to present the rejoinder in court through the Bench clerk. Mr. Venugopalachariar thought that he could resort to that step instead of filing it earlier. Even if that is not the proper procedure, still there is an error of judgment and inadvertent mistake, and we cannot ascribe any wanton culpability to the pleader in this matter. We are satisfied that the plaintiff had sufficient reasons for not appearing in Court when the case was called on 18th September, 1950.

But the really important question is whether Order 17, rule 2 or Order 17, rule 3 applies. The distinction between the two rules is that, in order that Order 17, rule 2 should apply, a party or his pleader should not be present in Court, whereas in the case of Order 17, rule 3, even if the party or his pleader is present in Court, if there is a failure to produce evide

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