Procedure when both parties appear

(1) If on the day of hearing both parties appear, the magistrate, if the defendant does not admit the claim, shall read 14 out the plaint to the defendant in order that he may make his answer or defence thereto, and shall thereafter proceed to hear and determine the cause and give judgment without further pleading or formal joinder of issue. (2) The witnesses on both sides shall, unless the court in any instance otherwise expressly orders, be called and placed out of court and out of hearing, and if the court thinks fit, under charge of an officer of the court or of some other person appointed by the court for that purpose. (3) The court shall then proceed to hear the plaintiff and such witnesses as he may examine, and such other evidence as he may adduce in support of his claim, and also to hear the defendant and such witnesses as he may examine, and such other evidence as he may adduce in his defence, and also to hear such witnesses as the plaintiff may, with leave of the court, examine in reply. (4) Subject to the powers of amendment conferred by this Act, no evidence of any cause of action shall be given by the plaintiff on the hearing unless that cause of action is stated in the plaint. (5) The magistrate shall, in every case, take notes in writing of the evidence, or of so much thereof as is material, in a book to be kept for that purpose, and the book shall be signed by the magistrate at the conclusion of each day’s proceedings.