Short answer. No. Postponement of a party's scheduled witness presentation is prohibited except for acts of God, force majeure, or a duly substantiated physical inability of the witness to appear, and even then the party must still finish presenting evidence within the remaining agreed trial dates already set.
What the law says
Postponement of presentation of the parties' witnesses at a scheduled date is prohibited, except if it is based on acts of God, force majeure or duly substantiated physical inability of the witness to appear and testify. The party who caused the postponement is warned that the presentation of its evidence must still be terminated within the remaining dates previously agreed upon.
Rule 18, Section 7 — Pre. Read the full provision →
Postponement is the exception, not the norm
This provision addresses what happens after the pre-trial order has already fixed a set of specific trial dates for the case. Postponement of presentation of the parties' witnesses at a scheduled date is prohibited here as a firm general matter — the trial dates already set at pre-trial are meant to be genuinely honored going forward, not treated loosely as flexible placeholders subject to easy rescheduling.
The three narrow exceptions
Postponement of a scheduled witness is allowed only where it is based on one of three narrow grounds: acts of God, force majeure, or a duly substantiated physical inability of the witness to appear and testify as scheduled. Each of these three grounds involves circumstances that are genuinely beyond the party's own control, rather than covering routine scheduling conflicts or mere personal inconvenience of the kind that comes up constantly in litigation.
Even a valid postponement doesn't reset the clock
Getting a postponement approved under one of these narrow, recognized exceptions is still not treated as any kind of fresh start for the case. The party who caused the postponement is expressly warned that the presentation of its evidence must still be terminated within the remaining dates previously agreed upon at pre-trial — the overall trial schedule already fixed earlier stays firmly in place regardless of the approved postponement. The warning applies regardless of which of the three narrow exceptions actually justified the postponement in the first place.
What happens when the other side fails to appear
This same overall framework separately addresses the opposing side's own non-appearance as well: should the opposing party fail to appear without valid cause of the kind described above, the presentation of the scheduled witness simply proceeds anyway, with the absent party deemed to have waived any objection and also waived the right to conduct cross-examination — reinforcing throughout that the fixed trial dates control the proceedings regardless of which particular side happens to be missing on the scheduled date.