Y.S. MANCHANDA Vs. JITENDER CHOPRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CAV 95/2015

(2.) It is the case of Mr Rawal, the learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant/ defendant, that the respondent/ plaintiff had no right to lead evidence in rebuttal inasmuch as the respondent/ plaintiff had already produced his evidence on issue No. 3. Although, Mr Rawal submits that the right to reserve evidence in rebuttal can be made at the beginning or towards the end or before the other party commences his evidence, this is subject to the rider that such party should not have led any evidence on that issue. He placed reliance on Order XVIII Rule 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as "the CPC") as also on a Division Bench decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Nalajala Narasayya v. Nalajala Sitayya and Others, 1992 AIR(AP) 97

(3.) On the other hand, the learned counsel for the respondent/ plaintiff submitted that the order passed by the learned Single Judge in confirming the order passed by the Local Commissioner on 08.05.2014, does not suffer from any infirmity. He submitted that the learned counsel for the plaintiff had made a statement that he was closing his evidence in the affirmative and this fact was also recorded in the order dated 23.07.2010 passed by the Joint Registrar of this Court, who was recording the evidence. Thus, according to the learned counsel for the respondent/ plaintiff, the latter had reserved his right to produce evidence by way of answer to the evidence, which may be produced by the defendant in respect of issue No. 3.