Section 108: Duty of a summoned witness to attend
Statutory text (Thai original)
พยานที่ได้รับหมายเรียกโดยชอบดังที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๑๐๖ และมาตรา ๑๐๗ นั้น จำต้องไป ณ สถานที่และตามวันเวลาที่กำหนดไว้ เว้นแต่มีเหตุเจ็บป่วยหรือมีข้อแก้ตัวอันจำเป็นอย่างอื่นโดยได้แจ้งเหตุนั้นให้ศาลทราบแล้ว และศาลเห็นว่าข้ออ้างหรือข้อแก้ตัวนั้นฟังได้
English translation
A witness duly summoned as provided in Section 106 and Section 107 must attend at the place and on the date and time fixed, unless there is illness or another necessary excuse, of which the court has been notified and which the court is of the opinion is a tenable ground or excuse.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 108 states the witness's positive duty to obey a lawful summons issued under Sections 106 or 107 by attending at the fixed place, date and time. The duty is not absolute: it yields to illness or another necessary excuse, but only where the witness has notified the court and the court is satisfied the ground is tenable. This makes non-attendance a matter for judicial assessment rather than the witness's own choice, and it underpins the enforcement and penalty provisions that follow in this Chapter. Note that the categories of persons who cannot be compelled at all are dealt with separately in Section 106/1, following the modern renumbering of the Chapter.
Why this matters in practice
Tell your witnesses plainly that a summons is a legal obligation, not an invitation: once duly served, they must attend unless illness or another real necessity is notified to the court and accepted. If a witness genuinely cannot attend, do not let them simply skip the date, file the excuse with the court in advance and be ready to substantiate it, or risk penalties and the loss of that evidence. Conversely, if an opposing witness fails to appear without a tenable excuse, raise it, as it can affect how the case proceeds.
Cited in 1 Supreme Court decisions (2010 to 2010)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 10843/2553 (2010)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Must a summoned witness attend court?
Yes. Under Section 108 a witness duly summoned under Section 106 or 107 must attend at the fixed place, date and time, unless there is a tenable excuse.
What excuses a witness from attending?
Illness or another necessary excuse can excuse attendance, but only if the witness notifies the court and the court is of the opinion the ground is tenable.
Can a witness just decide not to come?
No. Non-attendance is judged by the court, not chosen by the witness; without a notified and accepted excuse the witness remains bound to attend and may face penalties.
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil Procedure Code, s. 108 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 108. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-procedure-code/section-108/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.พ. มาตรา 108 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-procedure-code/section-108/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-procedure-code/section-108/"><p>A witness duly summoned as provided in Section 106 and Section 107 must attend at the place and on the date and time fixed, unless there is illness or another necessary excuse, of which the court has been notified and which the court is of…</p><footer>Civil Procedure Code, s. 108 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-procedure-code/section-108/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.