Dismissed

Smt K.Jayashree v. P.Sri Sai Ram

Telangana HC25 Apr 2012CRP/3423/2011

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

This revision petition challenged a trial court order refusing to send disputed promissory documents to a handwriting expert. The High Court held that while expert opinion is often preferred, Section 73 explicitly empowers courts to compare signatures and observed that there is no prohibition on such comparison.

What did the court decide?

The civil revision petition is dismissed. The order dated 1.7.2011 dismissing the application under Section 45 is upheld.

Smt K.Jayashree Vs P.Sri Sai Ram — Contract and Commercial Disputes | Telangana HC (2012)

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THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CIVIL REVISION PETITION No.3423 OF 2011

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ORDER:

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Challenging the order dated 1.7.2011 passed in I.A.No.561 of 1999 in O.S.No.922 of 2007 by the VI Additional Senior Civil Judge (FTC), Medchal, Rangareddy District, the present revision is filed by the petitioners-defendants.

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Originally, the respondent-plaintiff filed the above suit for recovery of money. The suit has been coming up for arguments. At this stage, the petitioners-defendants filed the above I.A. under Section 45 of the Evidence Act seeking to send Exs.A1 and A2 to the handwriting expert for comparison of the same with admitted signatures of the 1^st defendant, stating that she never executed the promissory note and receipt and those documents are fabricated. The trial Court dismissed the said application on the ground that the Court can compare the disputed signatures with the admitted signatures under Section 73 of the Evidence Act. Aggrieved by the same, the present revision has been filed.

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Heard the learned Counsel for the petitioners-defendants and perused the material available on record.

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The learned Counsel for the petitioners submits that Section 73 and 45 of the Evidence Act are not complementary to each other and the examination and opinion under Section 45 of the Act by an expert will prevail over the opinion of the Magistrate, who compares the signature in the open Court. In support of his contention, he also relied upon the judgments in this regard.

¶7

It is pertinent to note that Section 45 and 73 of the Evidence Act are in different spheres. In a suit for recovery of amount, the opinion of a handwriting expert may be relevant but that is not conclusive and not enough to decide the issue. The Court should not normally take upon itself the responsibility of comparing the disputed signature with that of

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the admitted signature or handwriting, and in the event of slightest doubt, leave the matter to the wisdom of experts. But this does not mean that the Court has no power to compare the disputed signature with the admitted signature, as this power is clearly available under Section 73 of the Act. It is the discretion of the Courts to send or not to send the documents to an expert or to take upon the responsibility of comparing the signatures, taking into consideration the circumstances of the case.

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In the above circumstances, this Court is not inclined to interfere with the order under revision and hence, the revision petition is liable to be dismissed.

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Accordingly, the Civil Revision Petition is dismissed. No order as to costs. Consequently, interim stay granted earlier stands vacated and the miscellaneous petitions pending, if any, are closed.

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____________________ JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO

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Dated: 25.4.2012 Nn

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HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO

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CIVIL REVISION PETITION No.3423 OF 2011

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25.4.2012

¶16

Nn.

Smt K.Jayashree v. P.Sri Sai Ram

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Smt K.Jayashree v. P.Sri Sai Ram

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

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