SETH ANAND KUMAR Vs. ABNASH KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question for consideration in this appeal by Special leave is whether the order of remand made by the High Court is in accordance with law.

(2.) This appeal arises from a probate proceeding. The question therein was whether the will propounded by the respondent herein, said to have been executed on 26th January 1957 by her late husband Seth Shiv Prasad was genuine. When that proceeding was pending before the Circuit Bench of the Punjab High Court at Delhi yet another proceeding to which the parties herein were also parties was also pending. That was a petition for winding up Lord Krishna Sugar Mills. It was numbered as Civil Original 58-D of 1960. On March 19, 1965 the parties to the probate proceedings agreed before the court that the evidence led in Civil Original 58-P of 1960 be read as evidence in the probate case. On the basis of that agreement the learned judge directed that the evidence in C. O. 58-D/1960 be read as evidence in the probate proceedings. After ah elaborate trial wherein considerable evidence, oral as well as documentary was led, the trial judge came to the conclusion that the will propounded was not genuine. He accordingly dismissed the application. Aggrieved by the decision, the respondent in this case appealed to the Letters Patent Bench of the Punjab High Court which later stood transferred to the Delhi High Court.

(3.) In the appeal no objection was taken to the mode in which the evidence was recorded nor was there any allegation that there was no proper trial or complete or effectual adjudication of the proceedings. We were told that no such contentions were taken at the hearing of the appeal nor any request made to remand the case for retrial. It appears that the appeal was heard on number of days and the case reserved for judgment. The High Court by its order dated October 20, 1967 set aside the order of the trial court and remanded the case to the trial court for a fresh trial.