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Judgment
Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Heard finally, by consent of learned counsel for the Petitioner and Respondent.
This Writ Petition is directed against the order dated 14th June 2017 passed by Family Court No.3, Pune, below Exhibits "46" and "60" in P.A. No.46 of 2014.
By the said order, the Trial Court has rejected the application Exhibit-60 filed by the Petitioner-wife for cross-examining the Respondent herein, in respect of the affidavit-evidence filed by the Respondenthusband at Exhibit-24 on 25th November 2014 and additional affidavitevidence (Exhibit-58) filed on 29th December 2016. The only ground on which the Trial Court has rejected the permission to cross-examine is that, already the affidavit-of-evidence (Exhibit-24) was filed long back and no cross-examination was conducted.
Learned counsel for the Respondent fairly concedes that he has no objection for the Petitioner to conduct cross-examination as regards the affidavit-evidence (Exhibit-24) and, hence, to that extent, this Writ Petition needs to be allowed.
As regards the additional affidavit-evidence filed at Exhibit-58, in my considered opinion, if the Trial Court has already taken it on record, then, it follows that the Petitioner should get an opportunity to deal with that affidavit-evidence also and to cross-examine the Respondent on that affidavit also, as the said affidavit-evidence appears to be filed to bring on record mostly the subsequent events and, therefore, an opportunity needs to be given to the Petitioner to deal with that additional affidavit-evidence by way of cross-examination or any other mode, which the Trial Court permits.
It is submitted that the matter is kept before the Trial Court on 6th November 2017. Learned counsel for the Petitioner submits that, he is ready to cross-examine the Respondent on that day.
Accordingly, this Writ Petition is allowed. The impugned order passed by the Trial Court on the application (Exhibit-60) is set aside. The Petitioner is given an opportunity to cross-examine the Respondent, both, on his earlier affidavit-evidence (Exhibit-24) and also on the additional affidavit-evidence (Exhibit-58), which is already taken on record.
Both the parties to extend co-operation to the Trial Court to decide the matter as expeditiously as possible and, preferably, within a period of three months from 6th November 2017.
At this stage, learned counsel for the Respondent makes a statement that Respondent has already cleared all the arrears of maintenance and if anything is remaining, he will clear the same before 6th November 2017. The statement is accepted.
Rule is made absolute in the aforesaid terms.