LAWS(MAD)-1960-3-24

T.N. GOVINDARAJULU Vs. LAKSHMI AMMAL

Decided On March 18, 1960
T.N. Govindarajulu Appellant
V/S
LAKSHMI AMMAL Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a revision petition against the order of the learned Subordinate Judge, Chingleput, in I. A. No. 246 of 1959 in O. S. No. 71 of 1957. The defendant is the petitioner.

(2.) ON the plaintiff's application under Order XXVI, Rule 1 of the Civil Procedure Code, the lower court permitted one Panchanatha Mudaliar to be examined as a witness on commission, It is common ground that Panchanatha Mudaliar is a material witness. The witness was sought to be examined on commission on the ground that he was very weak and infirm and confined to bed and that it was physically impossible for him to come to court or be brought to court. The affidavit in support of the application was accompanied by a medical certificate dated 29 -7 -1959, granted by Dr. P. T. Srinivasan, Honorary Assistant Surgeon, Government General Hospital, Madras.

(3.) THERE is nothing in the Evidence Act which makes a doctor's certificate relating to the illness of a witness by itself evidence at all. It is not a sworn statement and if it is to be relied on as evidence, I think it must be proved in the normal way by the testimony of the person giving it who will stand cross -examination. The statement of a doctor in his medical certificate or report, who is not him self called as a witness, is in the nature of hearsay evidence and as such it is not evidence of the truth of what is contained therein,