Published on: May 01, 2024 20:13 IST
Court: Supreme Court of India
Citation: Srinivas Raghavendrarao Desai v. Kumar Vamanrao 2024
Honourable Supreme Court of India has held that no evidence could be led beyond pleadings. It is not a case in which there was any error in the pleadings and the parties knowing their case fully well had led evidence to enable the Court to deal with that evidence. It is held that if the litigant wants to change their position, then one of the possible route is amendment of the pleadings and in case if specific amendment in the pleadings is rejected by the Civil Court then no evidence can be led beyond pleadings. It is held that “What was not permitted to be done directly cannot be permitted to be done Indirectly”.
24. As is evident from the judgment of the High Court, much reliance was placed upon the oral partition effected between the parties in the year 1965. In our opinion, the High Court committed a grave error in placing reliance upon the partition allegedly effected in the year 1965, in terms of which Schedule ‘A’ properties were allotted exclusively to the share of defendant No. 1. The fact remains that it is not even the pleaded case of the plaintiffs in the suit that there was any partition of the family properties in the year 1965. The suit was filed on 26.05.1999. Even the pleaded case of the defendants, especially defendant No. 1 who is the husband of plaintiff No. 3 and father of plaintiffs No. 1 and 2, in the written statement filed by him was not that there was any partition in the year 1965. Quite late, the plaintiffs sought to amend the plaint seeking to raise pleadings regarding 1965 partition. The Trial Court, vide order dated 11.10.2006 rejected the application for amendment of the plaint. The aforesaid order was not challenged any further. Meaning thereby, the same attained finality as far as the case sought to be set up by the plaintiffs based on 1965 partition.
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra