Evidence May Be Presented in Civil Trial Cross-Examination to Challenge Parties or Witnesses: Supreme Court
Case: Mohammed Abdul Wahid v. Nilofer and another
Coram: Justices BR Gavai and Sanjay Karol
Case No.: Arising out of Special Leave Petition (Civil)No.14445 of 2021
Court Observation: “Documents can be directly produced at the stage of cross-examination of a witness, (who is not a party to the suit), to confront the witness for refreshing his memory, under Order VII, Rule 14(4); Order VIII, Rule 1-A(4) and Order XIII, Rule 3 of Civil Procedure Code without seeking prior leave of the Court.”
“In our considered view, this distinction does not rest on firm ground. This is so because the function performed by either a witness or a party to a suit when in the witness box is the same,”
“The freedom to produce documents for either of the two purposes i.e. cross-examination of witnesses and/or refreshing the memory would serve its purposes for parties to the suit as well. Additionally, being precluded from effectively putting questions to and receiving answers from either party to a suit, with the aid of these documents will put the other at risk of not being able to put forth the complete veracity of their claim- thereby fatally compromising the said proceedings. Therefore, the proposition that the law differentiates between a party to a suit and a witness for the purposes of evidence is negated.”
“In light of the above discussion, and the answer in the negative to the first question before this court, meaning thereby that there is no difference between a party to a suit as a witness and a witness simpliciter- the second issue in this appeal, in view of the provisions noticed above, production of documents for both a party to the suit and a witness as the case may be, at the stage of cross-examination, is permissible within law,”
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Keywords
Evidence May Be Presented in Civil Trial Cross-Examination, Supreme Court
