Vinod Mehra vs Arun Mehra

Girish Kathpalia, J

Petitioner/defendant has assailed order dated 09.05.2022 of the learned trial court, whereby his application under Order VIII Rule 1A CPC for placing on record additional documents was dismissed.

It appears that petitioner and respondent are real brothers. The money recovery suit has been filed by respondent/plaintiff against the petitioner/defendant alleging that the former had given loan to the latter which remains not paid back. The defence to the suit is that the money paid by respondent/plaintiff to the petitioner/defendant was a part of their business transaction. The additional documents sought to be brought on record are the ledger account and other similar documents related to the alleged business transaction. The application under Order VIII Rule 1A CPC was filed after conclusion of evidence led by the respondent/ plaintiff but prior to commencement of evidence to be led by the petitioner/defendant. The relevance of the subject documents is not in dispute. As regards failure to file the subject documents at appropriate stage, it is explained by the petitioner/defendant that due to inadvertence, the subject documents could not be traced out at appropriate stage.

In the light of above circumstances, learned counsel for respondent/plaintiff submits that only to ensure expeditious disposal of trial, he consents to setting aside the impugned order and accepting the additional documents on record, subject to costs and also subject to permission to lead rebuttal evidence, if so required.

Under these circumstances, with consent of both sides, the petition is disposed of by setting aside the impugned order and directing the learned trial court to take on record the subject additional documents subject to the petitioner/defendant paying cost of Rs.20,000/- to respondent/plaintiff within one week after appearing before the trial court and also granting liberty to the respondent/plaintiff to lead rebuttal evidence, if so advised after conclusion of the evidence of the petitioner/defendant. The pending application also stands disposed of.

Both sides shall appear before the learned trial court on 15.10.2025 at 02:00pm. At this stage, as requested by both sides, they may make a request before the learned trial court for referring the matter to mediation as both parties are real brothers.