POHU LAL Vs. KAMLA DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition under Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure (hereafter referred to as the Code) is directed against the order dated 25.11.1999 passed by the learned Sub Judge 1st Class, Nalagarh whereby the application moved by the Petitioner-Defendant (hereafter referred to as the Defendant) under Order 18 Rule 3-A of the Code in Civil Suit No. 248/1 of 1996 for seeking permission to appear as his own witness has been dismissed.

(2.) The facts material for the purpose of disposal of this revision petition axe that the Respondent-Plaintiff (hereafter referred to as the Plaintiff) has instituted Civil Suit No. 248/1 of 1996 against the Defendant for declaration of title and grant of permanent injunction. After the conclusion of the evidence of the Plaintiff in the said suit, the case was posted for evidence of the Defendant on various dates and statement of one DW was recorded on 11.5.1999 and statements of two more DWs were recorded on 25.10.1999, when an application was moved on behalf of the Defendant for permission to examine him as his own witness. It was averred in the application that though the other witnesses of the Defendant had been examined but the Defendant has not been examined till then "due to inadvertance or with the consent of the counsel for the Plaintiff" and that the examination of the Defendant was necessary for just decision of the case. The application was contested by the Plaintiff who, in her reply, claimed that the Plaintiff or her counsel never accorded their consent to the Defendant to examine himself after examination of his other witnesses nor such permission was sought from the Court and that there was no lawful reason to examine the Defendant at that belated stage and he could not be allowed to fill up the lacunae in the evidence. The learned trial Judge, after hearing the counsel for the parties, dismissed the application by the impugned order. Hence the present petition.

(3.) I have heard the learned Counsel for the parties and have also gone through the records.