Any evidence which may facilitate decision of suit can be permitted to be led even at stage of rebuttal, says Punjab & Haryana HC

Read Order: Baldev Singh v. Amrik Chand and Others

Monika Rahar

Chandigarh, March 4, 2022: While dealing with a revision petition, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that any evidence which may facilitate the decision of a suit can be permitted to be led even at the stage of rebuttal. 

In this suit, there was a dispute regarding a document executed by the first defendant. The said document allegedly bore his thumb impression. At the stage of rebuttal, the plaintiffs came in possession of a document that allegedly contained the admitted thumb impression. Thus, during the rebuttal evidence, the plaintiffs filed an application for leading additional evidence by way of examination of an expert which was allowed. Hence, this revision petition was filed.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that the application could not be allowed as it was highly belated and was filed only for the purpose of delaying the trial. It was also argued that the document sought to be produced for comparison was never produced earlier and only a photocopy thereof was produced. Thus, the trial Court was in error in allowing the application, added the counsel. 

The above-stated argument was rejected by the Court on the ground that any evidence which may facilitate the decision of a suit could be permitted to be led even at the stage of rebuttal. 

Considering the factual situation of the case, Justice Sudhir Mittal added, “Delay would not be fatal in such cases, especially, when the plaintiffs have shown that the document came into their possession only at the stage of rebuttal. Had the document been in their possession earlier, there was no difficulty in producing the same in original rather than producing a photocopy.”

Thus, the revision petition was dismissed.