KARAN KUMAR Vs. MUKHTIAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this petition, petitioner has challenged order dated 01.03.2019, passed by the learned Court below, vide which an application filed by the present petitioner under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, who is defendant No. 1 before the learned Trial Court, with the prayer that he may be permitted to examine himself as a witness as inadvertently the same could not be done when he was leading evidence, stands dismissed by the learned Court below on the ground that said defendant had closed his evidence on 10.10.2017, and therefore, at the stage, when the application was filed, the same could not be allowed as it would tantamount to opening the evidence again.

(2.) Learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner has argued that though as far as the factual matrix as is contained in the impugned order is concerned, there is no dispute qua that, however, it was sheer inadvertence on the part of the present petitioner that he did not enter the witness box. Learned Senior Counsel has further argued that bonafide of the petitioner can be ascertained from the other evidence led by him. He submits that in the peculiar facts of the case, petitioner be permitted to step into the witness box because the same will facilitate the adjudication of the lis in an effective manner and further it will not cause any prejudice to the plaintiff as he will have the opportunity cross examine the defendant.

(3.) I have heard learned Counsel for the parties and also gone through the impugned order as well as other documents appended with the petition.