The Trial Court has the power to compare signatures and seek expert opinion if necessary, as per the principles of the Indian Evidence Act.

1. The Civil Revision Petition is directed against the fair and decretal order dated 8. 2006 passed in I.A. No.6415 of 2006 in O.S. No.7078 of 1998 on the file of the XIV Assistant City Civil Judge, Chennai.

2. Brief facts leading to the Civil Revision Petition are as follows:

The plaintiff is the petitioner. He filed a Suit for the grant of a decree for recovery ofRs.2,00,000/- by way of damages from the defendant. It is the case of the plaintiff that the defendant has suppressed the fact of his earlier marriage, a divorcee, an impotent and married his daughter by cheating them as if he was a bachelor and due to which, the petitioner was put to mental agony. Pending disposal of the Suit, the petitioner filed

I.A. No.6415 of 2006, seeking permission to take subpoena for the opinion from the Forensic Laboratory with regard to tampering of date in Ex.B2 and to file a report, as part of evidence in the above said Suit.

3. In the Interlocutory Application, the petitioner has submitted it the defendant with view to counter the aforesaid averment has altered and tampered the date and the place mentioned in Ex.B2, a letter addressed by one Mr. C. Kannan of Mysore to the father of the defendant. It is the specific allegation of the petitioner that the contents of Ex.B2, written by one Mr. C. Kannan of Mysore, are in thin letters, whereas the date and the place “Mysore” are in thick letters, which would show that there was tampering and overwriting. To cover up the tampering of the date, the defendant had overwritten the word “Mysore”. The date 04.05.1995 has been altered as 012. 1995, by erasing 4 and changing it as 7. The month `5 has been changed as "2" and by adding 1 before 2, the month has been altered as December 12. It is also the case of the petitioner that tampering of the word "Mysore" as well as numbers are visible even through naked eyes. Therefore, the petitioner has taken out an Application in I.A. No.864 of 2006, for a direction to conduct an enquiry and forward a finding that the defendant has committed an offence of fabricating false evidence in relation to Ex.B2 and prayed that the Court may make a Complaint in writing thereof as against the defendant to the competent Magistrate. The lower Court has declined to accept this prayer, but suggested that he may file an Application separately to establish the fact of tampering by the defendant in relation to Ex.B2 and take proper steps to get the opinion from the Forensic Laboratory. Pursuant to the direction, the petitioner has taken out an Application for the relief as stated supra.

.4. The respondent/defendant in his counter affidavit has denied the allegation that he is a divorcee, an impotent and married petitioners daughter as if he was a Bachelor. He has further denied the allegations of tampering of Ex.B2. It is the case of the respondent that when the document was marked, there was no objection and having failed to question the genuineness of Ex.B2, the petitioner has taken out the Interlocutory Application to drag on the proceedings. He has further submitted that the petitioner had filed nearly 20 Applications in the above Suit and most of them were dismissed as unnecessary by the lower Court and that the litigation has been dragged from 1998 to 2006 for nearly seven years. The respondent has further submitted that Ex.B1 is a letter written by one C. Kannan from Mysore to the father of the defendant and he is no more. He has further submitted that the contents of the letter can be proved only by examining the executor of that letter and the petitioner, who is a third party, has no locus standi to say that it has been tampered with. The respondent has further submitted that the plaintiff did not explain in his affidavit as to how the alleged tampering has affected his case and therefore, in the absence of prejudice, the plea should not be entertained.

5. The respondent has further submitted that when the petitioner has filed an Application in I.A.