Order 20 C.P.C. contains the details of a civil judgment. Order 20 Rule 1 envisages that the court shall pronounce judgment immediately after the completion of the argument or as soon as possible after the completion of the argument.
If the judgment is not pronounced immediately after the completion of the argument, a judge can either give a date for the pronouncement of the judgment or may reserve the judgment to be pronounced later.
If the date of the judgment is not given at the end of the arguments, a judge is duty bound to inform the parties or their counsels about the date on which the judgment is to be pronounced.
In actual practice, when a judgment is reserved, the judge causes notices served to the counsels of both the sides; after he dictates the judgment to his short- hand writer and only after being satisfied that both the sides were notified about the date of the judgement.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The judge pronounces judgment in open court. The impracticability of serving the notices of the pleaders of the parties gave birth to exhibiting the notice on the board.
A civil judgment shall be pronounced within fifteen days after the completion of the arguments.
However, Order 20 Rule 1 C.P.C also adumbrates that a judge can pronounce the judgment within one month after the arguments were heard. If a judge did not pronounce the judgment even by the thirtieth day after he heard the arguments, the judge shall have to state in the judgment itself why the judgment could not be pronounced within the thirty days after the completion of the arguments.