The Commissioner has the power to record objections and the admissibility of evidence will be determined at the trial of the suit.

Judgment -S. U. KAMDAR, J.

( 1 ) THE present Notice of Motion has been taken out for a direction to determine the admissibility of all the documents which are sought to be produced by the plaintiffs through their witness Mr. S. K. Agarwal before the commissioner. Some of the relevant facts of the present case are as under:

( 2 ) THE plaintiffs have filed a suit for recovery of sum of Rs. 8,39,14,843/- plus US $ 45,26,707,88 plus US $ 12,340 with interest thereon @ 18% p. a. The said suit was referred to the Commissioner for recording evidence by an order dt. 23. 10. 2002 passed by this Court and Ms. Madhavi Diwan practising advocate of this Court was appointed Commissioner with further direction that parties to file affidavit of evidence within a period of 2 weeks, The said order dt. 23. 10. 2002 specifically provides as under:-

( 3 ) "the Commissioner shall comply with all the other provisions of the applicable rules contained in Order 18 and in particular, shall record any objection which is raised before him. The objections, if any, shall be determined by the Court at the trial of the suit".

( 4 ) THEREAFTER the matter was placed before the learned Single Judge of this Court on 21. 1. 04 when due to the delay in proceeding, the appointment of Commissioner was cancelled. However, the learned Single Judge gave an opportunity to apply once again for appointment of Commissioner after completion of inspection. Chamber Summons No. 304 of 2004 was specifically taken out for reappointment of commissioner since inspection was complete and by order dt. 11. 6. 04 this Court granted the said Chamber Summons in terms of prayer Clause (a) and the Commissioner was directed to commence the evidence from 15. 7. 04. While passing the said order this Court passed the following order.

( 5 ) "the parties are at liberty to file documents before the learned Commissioner who shall take them on record provisionally. The affidavit of subsequent witnesses shall be tendered subsequently".

( 6 ) PURSUANT to this order dt. 11. 6. 04 the Commissioner appointed by this court under the Original Order dt. 23. 10. 02 recommenced the conducting of evidence. In pursuance of the said order passed by the Court, the plaintiff has filed an affidavit of one Mr. S. K. Agarwal affirmed on 16. 7. 04 as examination-in-chief. Alongwith the said affidavit various documents are produced in support of the case of the plaintiff. On 15. 2. 05, the Advocate for the Defendants informed the Advocate for the Plaintiffs that the defendants are objecting to the production of the various documents by the said witness Mr. S. K. Agarwal in support of this affidavit in evidence on the ground that the said documents are neither original nor the person producing the same is author of the said documents. On 18. 02. 2005 the Advocate for the plaintiffs replied that they will produce the original documents to the extent they were available with them at the time of recording of the evidence of the witness and that the defendants are at liberty to object to the documents produced by the plaintiffs as they may desire.

( 7 ) IN the meantime, the tenure of the Commissioner expired and the application was made by the plaintiffs before this Court for extending the term of the Commissioner for a further period of 12 weeks. By an order dt. 17. 3. 05 this Court extended the term of the Commissioner for further period of 12 weeks. Thereafter the Commissioner produced the matter for cross-examination on 19. 04. 2005 and 20. 4. 2005. At that stage, the defendants objected to any of the documents being marked as Exhibit on the ground that they are not admissible in evidence because they are not produced by the author of the documents and that the many documents are not the originals. The learned commissioner has recorded the aforesaid objections of the defendants and has proceeded with the cross-examination of the said witness on 19. 4. 05. The learned Commissioner has conducted the said cross-examination

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