A court in eastern India deferred until September 15 its verdict in a case in which 17 people are accused of burning an Australian missionary and his two sons to death, an official said.
The court was due to pass an order on Monday but postponed it as judge Mahendra Nath Patnaik was indisposed.
Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Philip, 8, and Timothy, 10, were killed when a mob, allegedly shouting anti-Christian slogans, set fire to their jeep in the eastern state of Orissa on January 23, 1999.
Staines and his two children were travelling from their hometown of Baripada to Keonjhar in Orissa and were sleeping in their car during an overnight stop in Manohapur village.
The three apparently tried to escape the flames but the mob, allegedly led by principal suspect Ravindra Pal, alias Dara Singh Singh, and armed with axes, prevented them.
Singh was arrested a year after the killings on January 31, 2000.
A special court has been hearing the case against Singh and 16 others, three of whom have not been caught by police.
During the court hearing last week, defence counsel Brahmananda Panda said prosecution witnesses who were the first to reach the site of the murder had failed to identify the suspects in court.
All the defendants have pleaded innocent but face the death penalty if convicted.