(1.) Vide order dated 11.9.1998 learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Hoshiarpur declined permission to defendant No. 3 to lead any evidence and fixed the case for rebuttal and arguments. Aggrieved from the said order defendant Sant Singh has filed this revision.
(2.) Mohan Singh had filed a suit for permanent injunction restraining Ram Parkash and Sohan Lal from blocking the passage shown in the site plan situated in Stehari, District Hoshiarpur. During the pendency of the suit an application was filed by Sant Singh under Order 1 Rule 10 CPC to be impleaded as party. The plaintiff had consented and this defendant had been impleaded as a party to the suit. Sant Singh filed written statement and admitted the claim of the plaintiff in entirety and took up the additional plea limited to the extent that the passage was being used by him and the plaintiff to the exclusion of others. The plaintiff took various opportunities to conclude his evidence but failed to do so. Vide order dated 3.1.1997 the evidence of the plaintiff was closed and subsequently by another order of the Court evidence of contesting defendant was also closed on 7.5.1997. After the case was fixed for arguments, learned counsel for defendant No. 3 had pressed the request for leading evidence which was declined vide the impugned order.
(3.) The contention raised on behalf of the petitioner while relying upon the case of Chailu Ram v. Chandi Ram and Ors., 1985 P.L.J. 149 is that the impugned order is liable to be set aside and the petitioner herein was entitled to lead evidence on merits. On the other hand, the learned counsel for the respondent has relied upon a judgment of a Division Bench of this Court in the case of Harminder Pal and Anr. v. Pritam Dass and Ors., (1990-2)98 P.L.R. 603 and Jagdish v. Daulat Ram and Ors., 1995(2) Civil Court Cases 140 to contend that having constituted the claim of the plaintiffs the petitioner had no right to lead evidence as claimed.