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2003 Supreme(AP) 1417

Andhra Pradesh High Court
Judges : B.SUBHASHAN REDDY
Sirugudi Adinarayana - Appellant
Versus
Bodla Mariamma - Respondent
CR.P.No.3586/03
Decided On : 11-28-03
Advocates Appeared :
Smt. Anjana Devi, P. Satyanarayana, Mr.S.V.R. Subrahmanyam

Headnote:CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE, Or8, Rule 1A(3) and Or13, Rules 2 & 3 - Trial judge passing order, partly allowing application filed by defendant and refusing to receive some of the documents on ground that they are inadmissible in evidence - Contention that question as to admissibility of documents at threshold stage impermissible in law

       Order directing reception of document is entirely different from order admitting document - Document would be allowed to be accepted when three other requirements are satisfied, viz, (i) relevancy (ii) admissibility and (iii) proof, but these three requirements are not at stage when documents are sought to be produced

       In the instant case, trial Court having found that good cause is shown granting leave to file documents, refused to receive some of documents that they are not admissible in evidence - Court cannot go into question of admissibility and relevancy of documents at this stage - Impugned order passed by trial Judge refusing to receive some of documents, set aside - Revision petition, allowed

B. SUBHASHAN REDDY, J.

( 1 ) THIS Civil Revision Petition is directed against the order dated 22-7-2003 made in LA. No. 476 of 2003 in O. S. No. 720 of 2001 by the learned I Additional Junior civil Judge, Visakhapatnam.

( 2 ) THE learned Trial Judge partly allowed the application filed by the petitioner herein under Order VIII Rule I (3) of the code of Civil Procedure (for short the code ) to receive certain documents. The learned Trial Judge having allowed the application in part received documents 1 to 3, 5 and 9 only on payment of costs of Rs. 50. 00 to the other side. The learned trial Judge did not receive the documents 4 and 6 to 8 on the ground that some of them are not admissible in evidence and some are merely Xerox copies.

( 3 ) IN this civil revision petition, the learned Counsel for the petitioner, Sri p. Satyanarayana, contended that the learned judge committed an error in deciding the question as to the admissibility of the documents even at the threshold stage and the same is impermissible in law. The learned Counsel contended that while considering the application to receive the documents, the Trial Court is required to see as to whether sufficient cause is shown for the delay in filing and bringing those documents on record, but it cannot decide about the admissibility or otherwise of such documents. The said question is required to be considered at subsequent stage for which purpose both parties shall have an opportunity to project their contentions as regards the relevancy and admissibility of the documents.

( 4 ) THE learned Counsel for the respondent, Sri S. V. R. Subrahmanyam, however, contended that the petitioner- defendant filed the present application only in order to delay and protract the proceedings. The learned Counsel further contended that the Court s jurisdiction to consider as to whether the documents that are sought to be filed into the Court are relevant and admissible, in no manner, gets effected and the same can be gone into by the Court at any stage of the proceedings.

( 5 ) I have given my anxious consideration to the rival submissions made during the course of hearing of this Civil revision Petition.

( 6 ) THIS Court in N. Narayana Reddy v. G. R. Subba Reddy, 2000 (1) ALT 69 and aravapalli Sriranganayakulu v. Godavarthi leelavathi, 2001 (3) ALD 516, held that under Order 13, Rule 2 of the Code of civil Procedure, the Court can direct the reception of the documents at any subsequent stage of the proceedings upon good cause being shown to the satisfaction of the Court for the non-production thereof earlier by assigning the reasons for doing so. Rule 3 of Order 13 of the Code of Civil procedure, however, is a different provision under which the Court may reject any document, which it considers irrelevant or otherwise inadmissible by recording the grounds for such rejection. Although it is said in the said rule that at any stage the court may do so but on a holistic consideration of the provisions under order 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The stage envisaged under Rule 3 is certainly not a stage at which the Court is expected to consider the good cause for the non-production of the documents earlier. The order directing the reception of the documents is entirely different from the order admitting the documents in evidence. The documents would be allowed to be accepted when the three other requirements are satisfied, namely, (i) the relevancy; (ii) the admissibility; and (iii) proof. Thus, those three requirements are not at the stage when the documents are sought to be produced before the Court, but at a later stage by showing good cause for non- production of the same earlier at the relevant time.

( 7 ) NO doubt, the said decisions were rendered interpreting Order XIII Rule (2) of the Code, which has been omitted and substituted by Act 46 of 1999 with effect from 1-7-2002. But, as at present, order VIII Rule 1a (3) of the Code provides that a document which ought to be produced in Cou







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