Punjab and Haryana High Court: Augustine George Masih, J. upheld the decision of the lower court as there was no evidence on record to prove the contentions made by the appellant.
An appeal was made against the judgment and decree passed by the Additional District Judge whereby the suit filed by the appellant-plaintiff for recovery of the amount from the respondent-defendant had been set aside by allowing the appeal and dismissing the suit of the appellant-plaintiff.
S.S. Bedi, Counsel for the appellant argued that the judgment and decree passed by the trial court was based upon proper appreciation of the evidence and the document on record. He contended that the respondent had acted upon the certificate of the Assistant who had been placed under the suspension and thus did not have authority to issue the certificate. He contended that the suit for recovery preferred by the appellant-plaintiff was based upon a departmental inquiry which was held against the respondent-defendant. Thus it was argued that the judgment passed by the Lower Appellate Court is based upon erroneous assumptions overlooking the facts on record and the evidence which has been produced by the parties. He, thus, contends that the appeal deserves to be allowed by setting aside the judgment and decree passed by the Lower Appellate Court and restoring that of the trial Court.
The Court opined that contention of the appellant that the report of the departmental inquiry was enough to establish the shortage cannot be accepted as no stock shortage had been proved on record and assertion that the respondent-defendant was required to himself verify the stock will not suffice as the same was not made in any rules or regulations as such. It was further held that unauthorized person having issued the certificate could not have been acted upon as it did not have any legal sanctity; moreover, no record was produced to show that any payment in the presence of the commission agent was made at the time of purchase of the stock. Merely relying upon the inquiry report would not be enough in a suit for recovery. Actual loss having occurred by the Corporation has to be established which is absent here as no evidence has been produced on record to substantiate such an assertion and, therefore, the contention of learned counsel for the appellant that the respondent-defendant had acted upon a certificate issued by an unauthorized person, cannot be accepted. Thus the Judgment of the lower court was upheld.[Punjab State Warehousing Corpn. Ltd. v. Paramjit Singh, 2019 SCC OnLine P&H 1229, decided on 15-07-2019]