Personal appearance of a party in a civil suit is not mandatory for every hearing if their counsel is present, and is generally only required during the evidence stage; therefore, health issues and distance alone may not justify a transfer under Section 24 CPC.

The Court made the following:

ORDER:

The petitioners filed the present petition under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, seeking to withdraw the suit in O.S.No.1157 of 2022, on the file of the Principal Junior Civil Judge, Tirupati and transfer the same to the Principal District Judge, Kurnool District.

2. The case of the petitioners in brief is as follows:

I. The petitioner No.1 is an old aged person suffering from various age related ailments and physical infirmities and is presently residing at Guntakal Mandal, Anantapur District, after being forcibly ousted from his native residence by his own sons, who are the respondents herein. The petitioner No.1 pleaded that due to his old age ailments, it is very difficult for the petitioner No.1 to travel at a distance of approximately 350Kms from Ananthapur District to Tirupati District, as such the petitioners are constrained to file the present transfer petition seeking to withdraw the suit in O.S.No.1157 of 2022, on the file of the Principal Junior Civil Judge, Tirupati and transfer the same to the Principal District Judge, Kurnool District.

3. Learned counsel for the respondents contended that there are no merits in the transfer petition and requested to dismiss the present transfer civil miscellaneous petition.

4. Heard Sri M.S.Bhanu Prasad Rao, learned counsel, representing Sri P.Jayachandra, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, and Sri W.V.B.Shravan, learned counsel for the respondents. Perused the material available on record.

5. The grounds urged by the petitioner No.1 for seeking transfer of withdraw the suit in O.S.No.1157 of 2022, on the file of the Principal Junior Civil Judge, Tirupati to the Principal District Judge, Kurnool District, is that he is old aged person and suffering from various health issues and it is very difficult for him to travel from Ananthapur District to Tirupati, which involves a long distance of 350Kms. As per the e-Courts case status, written statement is filed in O.S.No.1157 of 2022 and the stage of the case is that it is posted for framing of issues. It is undisputed by both the learned counsels that the petitioner herein is not residing at Kurnool and he is currently staying at Guntakal. It is brought to the notice of this Court by the learned counsel for the respondents that the distance in between Guntakal and Kurnool is approximately 130Kms and he would further contend that the petitioners herein are not seeking transfer of the suit in O.S.No.1157 of 2022 from Tirupati to Guntakal and that there are no merits in the present transfer petition.

6. On a perusal of the material available on record, the petitioners herein, who are the defendants in O.S.No.1157 of 2022, have engaged a counsel before the Principal Junior Civil Judge, Tirupati. The law is well settled that

“the appearance of the party in a civil suit is not at all required on each and every date of adjournment before the trial Court, unless and until his/her counsel is attending the Court proceedings on every date of adjournment. Further, the appearance of the party is required only on the date of giving his/her evidence before the trail Court”.

7. Necessity for transfer of suit from one Court to another would arise if only there exists any similarity of cause of action or commonality of the parties. When such a situation does not exist, the relief claimed for the transfer of suit cannot be granted. Section 24 of CPC confers comprehensive power on the Court to transfer the suits, appeals or other proceedings at any stage either on the application by any party or suo moto.

8. As notic