Putta Gouda by L.Rs. and Others vs Godavari since dead by L.Rs. and Ganapati

Ravi Malimath, J.—The plaintiffs filed a suit for partition. At the stage of judgment, the defendants filed an application seeking to reopen the case for further examination of D.W. 2. By the impugned order, the same was allowed. Hence, the present petitions are filed. Learned counsel for the petitioners contends that the impugned order is bad in law and liable to be set aside. On the other hand, the learned counsel for the respondent defends the impugned order.

The contention of the respondent is that while recording the evidence, he has erroneously stated that the date of the ''will'' as 18.08.1994. That there was a gap of 18 years and it is now noticed that D.W. 2 has wrongly stated so. Therefore, the application has been filed. The Trial Court appreciated the contentions and allowed the application. On considering the contentions and reasoning, I''m of the considered view that appropriate relief requires to be granted. Firstly, is the finding recorded by the Trial Court itself, that similar applications were filed earlier which were rejected. Thus, they attained finality. Thereafter, this application has been filed that too at a stage when the matter is set down for judgment. Apparently, the only grievance of the respondent is with regard to the date of the ''will''. It is his case that it is a registered ''will''. Under these circumstances, necessarily the Trial Court would have take judicial notice of the date as mentioned in the registered document. Even though there may be an error in mentioning the wrong date in the evidence of D.W. 2, it is the date in the registered document that has to be reckoned by the Trial Court. Under these circumstances, I do not find any good ground to allow the application, specially when the matter is set down for judgment. Consequently, the petitions are allowed. The order dated 11.07.2013 passed by the Civil Judge in O.S. 32/89 in I.A. Nos. 15 and 16 is set aside. The Trial Court is directed to pronounce the judgment at the earliest, keeping in mind the aforesaid observations.