The Madhya Pradesh High Court, held that a Defendant can lead evidence before the Plaintiff in a civil suit when they claim the existence of a Will. This was seen in the case of SANJAY INGLE AND ANR. VERSUS PANCHFULA BAI AND ANR (MISC. PETITION No. 5039 of 2022), which was presided over by Justice Vivek Agarwal.
FACTS OF THE CASE
The Petition is filed by the defendants/petitioners being aggrieved of order passed by learned Civil Judge whereby it has been directed the defendants to lead their evidence first.
This is a suit filed seeking relief of declaration of title with regard to the suit property, In this case the defendant and her son are the concubine and illegitimate son of the late man, who died intestate, It is submitted that defendants claim, title in respect of the suit property on the basis of registered Will, Defendants further pleaded that Laxman had divorced his first wife, therefore, she has no stake in the suit property.
The Appellants/Plaintiffs had instituted a suit against the Respondents/Defendants before the lower court seeking relief of declaration of title with regard to the suit property. They had also pleaded in their plaint that the suit property belonged to their Late father who died intestate and the defendants had no title in the same.
JUDGMENT OF THE CASE
The court observed that it is evident that Section 101 of the Evidence Act provides that “whoever desires any Court to give judgment as to any legal right or liability dependent on the existence of facts which he asserts, must prove that those 2 facts exist. When a person is bound to prove the existence of any fact, it is said that the burden of proof lies on that person.
With the aforesaid observations, the Court found it fit to not interfere in the impugned order and accordingly, the appeal was dismissed.
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JUDGEMENT REVIEWED BY VYSHNAVI KRISHNAN.