Bombay High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Shalini Phansalkar Joshi, J. heard a petition challenging the order of the trial court that had allowed admission of letters by the respondent as secondary evidence. The petitioner contended that there was nothing on record to show that those letters had been issued by the respondent and the respondent’s contention that they were in the possession of the petitioner was also not true. Therefore, the petitioner requested that the application seeking request to produce letters in the form of secondary evidence be rejected.
The Court upheld the decision of the trial court allowing the respondent to produce secondary evidence stating that the necessary foundation for production of the secondary evidence had been established but merely because the respondent was allowed to lead secondary evidence does not imply that they will be exhibited or admitted in evidence.
Therefore, the issue as to admitting them in evidence had been left open by the trial court and the High Court to be dealt with at an appropriate stage and the petition was dismissed. [Rajendra Mahadev Todkar v. M/s Paranjape Schemes (Construction) Company Limited, 2018 SCC OnLine Bom 15, order dated 05-01-2018]
