Jharkhand High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Shree Chandrashekhar, J., dismissed a writ petition filed against the order of the trial court whereby petitioner’s application for a direction upon the respondent to produce a copy of the letter dated 04-07-2009 has been rejected.
The main issue that arose before the Court was whether the trial court was justified in rejecting the petitioner’s application.
The Court observed that as per the various provisions of Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (CPC), both the parties to a suit are required to present their respective claims along with the documents, evidences on which their case rests. For instance, a defendant is required to produce the document under Order VIII Rule 1-A(3) CPC on which his defence is founded, whereas Order XIII, Rule 1 CPC mandates submission of original documents by both the parties before the issues are settled. Prior to the submission of original documents, the parties are at liberty to exchange interrogatories as per Order XI. It is an admitted fact that no notice was issued by the petitioner to the respondent, seeking production of the concerned letter dated 04-07-2009.
The Court held that the parties to a suit must stand on their own legs and it is the responsibility of the party taking a specific plea to prove it by way of producing the concerned evidence(s). The Court held that the order of the trial court rejecting petitioner’s application needed no interference since it was sound and valid. Resultantly, the petition was dismissed.[Suresh Khan v. State of Jharkhand,2018 SCC OnLine Jhar 1572, order dated 19-11-2018]