HC - Under Clause 3 of Rule 14 of Order VII of CPC, a document shall not be received in evidence without the leave of the Court. The discretion has to be exercised by the Court only in favour of a party who shows due diligence in prosecuting his case

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

AT HYDERABAD

The Hon'ble Sri Justice C.V.Nagarjuna Reddy

Civil Revision Petition No.1218 of 2012

Date: 15.03.2012

Between:

Capt. Abheram Sharma and five others

..... Petitioners

AND

Manager, Punjab & Sind Bank,

Secunderabad and another

.....Respondents

Counsel for the Petitioners: Sri M.V. Suresh

Counsel for the Respondents: ----

The Court made the following :

Order:

This Civil Revision Petition arises out of common order, dated 14.09.2011, in I.A.No.373 of 2010 in O.S.No.565 of 2005, on the file of the learned XII Additional Senior Civil Judge, City Civil Court, Secunderabad.

The petitioners are the plaintiffs. They have filed the above-mentioned suit for recovery of certain amounts from respondent No.1-defendant No.1. The suit is pending since the year 2005. After the closure of the evidence and posting of the case for arguments, the petitioners came out with I.A.Nos.371, 372 and 373 of 2010. The present civil revision petition is filed against the common order in I.A.No.373 of 2010 whereby the lower Court has refused to grant leave to file the documents enclosed to the petition. The documents, which were proposed to be filed by the petitioners are O.A.No.21 of 2008 and the counter affidavit filed therein by defendant No.1, of which petitioner No.1 is a partner. The lower Court has dismissed the application on several grounds, namely, that in the plaint, the petitioners have not even made a whisper of O.A.No.842 of 1997, which was initially filed before the Debts Recovery Tribunal, Bangalore and transferred with the constitution of the Debts Recovery Tribunal at Visakhapatnam and re-numbered as O.A.No.21 of 2008 and that the application is too belated and filed at the stage of arguments.

Sri M.V. Suresh, learned counsel for the petitioners, submitted that the lower Court has committed an error in treating the case as falling under Order VII Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 (for short “CPC”) and that the case falls under Order VII Rule 14 (c) of CPC. The learned counsel also submitted that mere delay in filing the application cannot be a ground to reject the same.

I have carefully considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioners and perused the record.

As rightly pointed out by the lower Court, the suit was filed by the petitioners much subsequent to the filing of the O.A. Petitioner No.1 being a partner in the firm, which was defendant No.1 in the O.A., he cannot be heard to say that he has no knowledge of the said O.A. Any amount of evidence without raising a pleading would not advance the case of the petitioners. The failure of the petitioners to refer to the O.A. in the plaint and not to file the documents, which are now proposed to be filed till the stage of arguments, itself would show total lack of diligence on their part in prosecuting their case.

Under Clause 3 of Rule 14 of Order VII of CPC, a document shall not be received in evidence without the leave of the Court. The discretion has to be exercised by the Court only in favour of a party who shows due diligence in prosecuting his case.

In my opinion, the lower Court is justified in rejecting the application, as the petitioners failed to show any semblance of diligence. Further more, the petitioners have earlier filed several interlocutory applications, upon which, the Court has come to the conclusion that their application lacks bonafides. This Court, while exercising the supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, is not inclined to interfere with the discretion exercised by the lower Court.

For the above-mentioned reasons, the Civil Revision Petition is dismissed.

As a sequel, C.R.P.M.P.No.1642 of 2012 filed by the petitioners for interim relief, is disposed of as infructuous.

__________________________

          (C.V.Nagarjuna Reddy, J)

15^th March, 2012

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