High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur: Recently, a petition under Article 227 of the Constitution was filed before the High Court against the order of the court below to reject an application filed by petitioners under S. 45 of the Evidence Act. On going through the facts of the case, the proceedings till now and contentions of counsel from both the sides, the Court concluded that the sole question in the present case is that despite delay whether S. 45 application can be entertained or not.
The Court referred to L.S.Trading Co. v. Manish Mishra, 2010 SCC OnLine MP 213 : (2010) 4 MP LJ 228 in which it has been observed that the application under S. 45, Evidence Act cannot be rejected only on the ground of delay. The Court further on relating the reference to the facts of the present case observed that the delay alone is not the ground in this case for reject the application of the petitioner and conduct of the petitioner had also played a significant role for the same as the petitioners had themselves rejected a similar application earlier filed by the opposite party.
Further, the Court highlighted the point of law relating to its jurisdiction as to that the interference under Article 227 of the Constitution can be made if order is passed by the court without authority of law or it suffers from any manifest procedural impropriety or palpable perversity. It further held that interference cannot be made mere on a drop of hat and reiterated the stance of the Apex Court in various judgments that mere error of fact or law alone is not sufficient for interference. The Bench of Sujoy Paul, J. finally dismissed the petition stating that it would not act as a bull in a China shop. [Narendra Singh v. Gurmel Kaur, 2017 SCC OnLine MP 1358, decided on 07.11.2017]
