NARESH BATRA Vs. STATE U.T. CHANDIGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition challenges an order of the trial Magistrate directing sending of certain documents carrying specimen signatures of late Shri B.L. Batra to the Director, FSL, New Delhi for comparison.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner submitted that the impugned order was without jurisdiction and ultra vires of section 73 of the Evidence Act. Reliance is placed on decisions of the Apex Court in State of West Bengal v. S.N. Basak, AIR 1963 SC 447 and State of U.P. v. Ram Babu Misra, AIR 1980 SC 791.

(3.) AFTER hearing counsel for the parties, I find no merit in this petition. The decisions relied on by counsel for the parties relate to stage at which the Court can require a person to give signatures or of comparing the signatures. Observations made in the said decisions relate to objection to give signatures when the matter is not pending before the Court and may be instituted in Court subsequently. In the present case, the matter is pending before the Court and any direction to compare signatures by the Court will be within the purview of Section 73 of the Evidence Act.