ASHA NARANG Vs. VED PRAKASH NARANG

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The parties were married on 21/4/1969 at Dehradun. Rahul, a son was born to the couple on 5/3/1974. It appears that the marriage was not sailing smoothly. The relationship between the parties became sour and went from bad to worse. Ultimately, on 26/8/1985, a petition for divorce was filed by the respondent-husband under Section 13 (l) (i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The petition was contested by the appellant and a written statement was filed. Thereafter, the respondent led his evidence. He appeared as his own witness and closed the evidence. The appellant led no evidence and her counsel made a statement that she did not want to lead any evidence. On the basis of the material on the record, the trial court found that the respondent had established his case that he had been treated with mental cruelty by the appellant and accordingly granted a decree of divorce. An appeal was filed against the judgment and decree of the trial court, dated 4/2/1995 by the appellant. The appeal came to be dismissed by the District Judge, Dehradun on 17/6/1995. The finding of the trial court that the appellant had treated the respondent with cruelty was confirmed. The appellant, thereafter filed a second appeal in the High court of Allahabad. Along with the appeal, an application under Order 41 Rule 27 Civil Procedure Code was also filed seeking permission to lead additional evidence. It was pleaded by the appellant that her counsel had closed the evidence in the trial without any instructions from her and that as a matter of fact, she came to know about the statement of her counsel to close the evidence and about the decree of the trial court as well as the order of the first appellate court later on whereupon she filed the second appeal in the High court. It was, under those circumstances, according to the appellant, that she prayed to the High court for grant of her application under Order 41 Rule 27 Civil Procedure Code to lead additional evidence.

(3.) The High court noticed that the appellant had not even examined herself at the trial though the respondent was cross-examined in the trial court at length. It was found that in the first appellate court no prayer was made by the appellant to lead additional evidence under Order 41 Rule 27 cpc and that the prayer for leading additional evidence was made for the first time only in the second appeal in the High court. After a detailed discussion, the High court found that the prayer to lead additional evidence under Order 41 Rule 27 Civil Procedure Code, in the facts and circumstances of the case, could not be granted, as the grant of that prayer "would virtually give a new lease of life to the litigation". The prayer was consequently rejected. After appreciating the material on the record, the High court culled out the findings of fact recorded by the two courts below, as follows: