S.S.SANDHAWALIA, J.

1. What is the last stage for exercising the option to reserve the right of rebuttal to the evidence adduced by the other party under O.18 R.3 is the core question in this set of five civil revisions which are before us on a reference.

2. The facts relevant to the common question aforesaid may be briefly noticed from C.R. 872 of 1982 - Jaswant Kaur V/s. Devinder Singh. The plaintiff-respondents had brought a suit for permanent injunction restraining the defendant-petitioners from interfering in the agricultural land in their possession. On the pleadings of the parties a number of issues were framed and the burden of proof thereof was rested respectively on the plaintiffs or the defendants. The plaintiffs who apparently had the right to begin had not concluded their evidence both in the affirmative and in rebuttal when on the 19th of May, 1981 the plaintiff counsel made a statement that he was closing his case in affirmative only. At a later stage when the plaintiffs wished to lead evidence in rebuttal, an application was preferred on behalf of the defendants praying that the plaintiffs should be disallowed from doing so because the option to reserve the