HAMEK SINGH Vs. BACHAN KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE evidence of the defendants-petitioners came to be closed after he had availed of as many as seven effective opportunities there for. All along, he did not apply for examining any hand writing expert. Both the parties had based their respective claims on the basis of a will. The plaintiff-respondent had based the claim for relief on the basis of a will dated 15.12.2001. As against it, the defendants-petitioners had placed reliance upon will dated 25.8.2001. It was thereafter that the closure of the rebuttal evidence defendants-petitioners filed a plea for additional evidence for the leave of the Court to examine hand writing and finger print expert to prove the falsity of the will dated 15.12.2001. That plea of his did not find favour with the learned Trial Court which observed, on facts, that the application had been filed at a belated stage and "only with an intention to linger on the proceedings."

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the defendants-petitioners argues that the adducing of proposed evidence would enable the Civil Court to adjudicate Civil Revision No. 1770 of 2008-2 upon the controversy effectively and completely.

(3.) THERE is no dispute with the factual premise that the defendants- petitioners did avail of indicated number of opportunities for adducing its evidence. Both the parties were in the know of the nature of the controversy from the very beginning. The respondent-plaintiff had adduced evidence to prove the execution/validity of the will dated 15.12.2001. Likewise, defendants-petitioners also closed their evidence. The onus was upon defendants-petitioners to prove the falsity of the will dated 15.12.2001. The defendants-petitioners could succeed in obtaining the non-suiting of the plaintiff-respondent only by proving the will in their favour but also by proving that will dated 15.12.2001 was a forged affair or invalid. The defendants- petitioners were, thus, cognizant of the pleadings of the parties. That controversy was, even otherwise, apparent from the issues which arose out of the pleadings of the parties.