ORDER :

1. The petitioners herein are the defendants 2 to 6 in a suit for delivery of possession of an immovable property and mense profits. The present revision is against the rejection of the petitioners' application in I.A. No. 11903 of 2018 filed under Order 8, Rule 9 of the Civil Procedure Code to permit the second defendant to file an additional written statement in the suit.

2. Heard Mr. Vineet Subramani, learned counsel for the petitioners as well as Mr. S. Raghunathan, learned counsel for the respondent.

3. Mr. Vineet Subramani, learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners 2 to 5 herein are the legal representatives of the first defendant. Earlier, the defendants 1 and 2 had filed written statement on 11.09.2007. When the suit was originally presented before the High Court in C.S. No. 248 of 2004, the same came to be transferred in 2010 to the City Civil Court, Chennai and re-numbered as O.S. No. 13825 of 2010. Subsequently, when the original defendants were set ex-parte and the suit was decreed on 31.10.2011, the defendants had filed an application to set aside the ex-parte order and when the same was dismissed as not maintainable, the High Court, by an