Herald Prashant Lal v. Dorthy w/o Sudhakar Ramteke
2000-09-07
A.M.KHANWILKAR
body2000
DigiLaw.ai
JUDGMENT - A.M. KHANWILKAR, J.:---Rule. By consent, Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard both the sides. 2. The only question which requires consideration in this case is whether the Court below was right in rejecting the application Exh. 91 preferred by the applicant for permission to place photographs on record which were necessary for the cross-examination of plaintiff's witness No. 1. The Court below has rejected the said application on the ground that no reason is given by the defendant for late production of the said photographs and that negatives have also not been produced. According to the trial Court, the photographs which were sought to be produced, could be of any function. The trial Court further held that since execution of Will is admitted, production of the said photographs was wholly irrelevant. 3. The learned Counsel for the applicant contends that the photographs were produced in the course of the cross-examination of plaintiff's witness No. 1 only with a view of confront him with the assertion made by him in the deposition that he did not attend any function in question. According to him, the relevant provisions applicable for such situation would be sub-rule (3) of Rule 8-A of Order VIII of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, which permits production of document at the time of cross-examination of the plaintiff's witness. It is, therefore, submitted that the Court below has clearly overlooked this provision while deciding the application below Exh. 91. On the other hand, the learned Counsel for the non-applicant, besides the reasons assigned by the trial Court, also relied upon Order XVIII, Rule 17-A to contend that it was not open to the plaintiff to produce document at such belated stage. 4. Having considered rival arguments, I am of the view that the Court below has clearly overlooked the provisions of sub-rule (3) of Rule 8-A of Order VIII of C.P.C., which entitles the applicant to produce the document during the cross-examination of the plaintiff's witness. The Court below, therefore, ought to have permitted the applicant to produce the said document as the same was being produced for the limited purpose of confronting the plaintiff's witness No. 1. In support of this submission, reliance was placed by the learned Counsel for the applicant on the decision reported in (A.I.R. 1984 Madras page 14)1, para 8 which, according to him, has directly considered this point. 5.
In support of this submission, reliance was placed by the learned Counsel for the applicant on the decision reported in (A.I.R. 1984 Madras page 14)1, para 8 which, according to him, has directly considered this point. 5. For the reasons indicated above, the impugned order deserves to be set aside and consequently application Exh. 91 is allowed. It would be, therefore, open to the applicant to produce the said document at the time of cross-examination of plaintiff's witness No. 1 as observed above. Revision application is, thus allowed. Revision application allowed. -----