Guardianship and Wards Act, 1890—Section 25—Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956—Section 6(a)—Constitution of India, 1949—Article 227—Interim custody by mother—Application for—Dismissal of—Tender Age—Emotional Attachment—Mental Well-being—Where the child of tender years demonstrated a strong emotional bond and comfort with the father, with whom he has resided for over a year and exhibited distress upon separation, it would not be in the child's best interests to disrupt the settled custody arrangement—Interim custody granted to the father for over a year is upheld to prevent potential psychological detriment—Interim custody sought by the mother rightly denied—Petition devoid of merit—Dismissed. (Para 15 and 16) संरक्षक...

Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (CPC)—Order 14 Rule 2—The petitioner challenged the order dated 23.08.2023 passed by the Civil Judge, Junior Division, Kamal, which directed the issue of limitation to be treated as a preliminary issue—The plaintiff filed a suit for recovery of Rs. 18,65,832, and the defendant raised an objection under Order VII Rule 11 CPC, claiming that the suit was barred by limitation—While the trial court initially dismissed the objection, the revision court directed the trial court to consider framing the limitation issue as a preliminary matter—The trial court, based on a previous judgment, framed the issue of limitation as preliminary—However, the court observed that the question of limitation involves both law and fact—Referring to Supreme Court rulings in Ramesh D. Desai and Sa...

Punjab Courts Act, 1918—Section 41—This is an application filed by the applicant-appellant under Order 41 Rule 27 and Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, seeking to produce additional documents—namely a pronote/receipt of Rs. 17,000, mortgage deed, special power of attorney, and the deposition of Balwinder Singh in Sessions Case No. 119 of 2016—The applicant claimed these documents were essential for the proper adjudication of the case but were not presented due to lack of opportunity—However, the court found no plausible explanation for the failure to produce these documents at the trial or appellate stage—The documents were deemed unnecessary for the case’s decision and were rejected—The applicant's appeal was dismissed—In the second appeal (RSA-1059-2025), the defe...

Civil Procedure Code, 1908—Section 100—Departmental proceedings and a criminal conviction, the plaintiff, a workman, faced charges for misconduct related to opposing the Spot Billing system—After an inquiry, the plaintiff was penalized with the stoppage of two annual increments with cumulative effect—The criminal court convicted the plaintiff and six others under various sections of the IPC, including rioting and assault—However, the departmental authority had already imposed a penalty, and the disciplinary proceedings were completed following the principles of natural justice—The court held that imposing a second penalty based on the same cause of action would amount to double jeopardy—Relying on the Supreme Court's judgment in Lt—Governor, Delhi v. HC Narinder Singh, the court emphasiz...

Evidence Act, 1872—Sections 17-21—A parentage dispute, the plaintiff sought to establish her relationship with the deceased landowner based on various public documents, including marriage certificates, foreign citizenship applications, and passport entries, all of which were admissible under the Evidence Act, 1872—The defendant failed to provide evidence to counter the plaintiff's claim and made admissions during testimony that acknowledged the plaintiff's status as the daughter of the deceased—The appellate court, however, rejected the substantial documentary evidence without proper legal consideration, thereby committing an error—The court held that documents qualifying as public records carry a presumption of truth under Section 74 of the Evidence Act and do not require extensive proof if pres...

Civil Procedure Code, 1908—Section 100—In this second appeal, the plaintiff sought a declaration of ownership and possession of a residential property based on a registered Will dated 01.06.2006 executed by Ram Kaur in her favor—The defendant, however, contested the Will, asserting a previous Will dated 20.03.1996 in his favor—The trial court and first appellate court dismissed the plaintiff’s suit, finding the Will dated 01.06.2006 to be surrounded by suspicious circumstances, including the plaintiff's proximity to the execution of the Will and the failure to prove her relationship with Ram Kaur—The courts also noted inconsistencies in the Will's provisions and the plaintiff's inability to establish that she had been serving Ram Kaur or living with her—The second appeal, based on the ...

Evidence Act, 1872—Section 115—An employee appointed on a temporary or ad-hoc basis with a consolidated salary may be estopped from later claiming salary parity with regular employees, particularly if they accepted the salary without protest as stipulated in the appointment letter—The principle of "equal pay for equal work" requires specific pleadings and proof, with the onus on the employee to establish parity in duties, responsibilities, and other factors, which is insufficient when merely asserted without detailed comparison—Part-time employees generally cannot claim salary parity with regular employees—Courts, when faced with concurrent findings of fact, should not interfere unless findings are shown to be perverse or illegal—Manipulation of documents by the plaintiff further disqualifies ...

Civil Procedure Code, 1908—Order 41 Rule 31—A suit for permanent injunction based on possession, the burden of proof lies on the plaintiff to establish settled possession through reliable evidence, and they cannot rely solely on the weaknesses of the defendant’s case—Contradictory stands by the plaintiff, such as claiming possession based on relinquishment versus a will, weaken their claim—Entries in Rapat Roznamcha or Khasra Girdawari do not carry the presumption of truth under Section 44 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, and require independent corroboration—Admissions made by a party in pleadings or documents are significant but not conclusive evidence, and appellate courts must consider them in the context of the entire case—Spot inspection reports and revenue orders, when conducted i...

Evidence Act, 1872—Section 8—The appeal in the present case challenges the conviction of Som Nath for the murder of Sohan Lal, with the primary evidence being the testimony of Tarlok Chand/PW-5, a close relative of the complainant, who allegedly saw the accused with the deceased on the night of 01.11.1998—The defense contended that the witness’s delayed disclosure and contradictions weakened the prosecution's case—Furthermore, there was a significant gap between the last-seen evidence and the discovery of the deceased, raising doubts about the accused's involvement—The prosecution's circumstantial evidence, including recovery of the deceased’s karrah, lacked credibility, as it was witnessed solely by the complainant—The Supreme Court's ruling in Dinesh Kumar v—State of ...

Civil Procedure Code, 1908—Order 21 Rule 102—The petitioner, Shashi Gupta, challenged the dismissal of her third-party objections and application for restoration of a suit dismissed in default—She purchased the suit property after the institution of the suit by the decree-holder, Narinder Kumar Sood, making her a transferee pendente lite, which invoked Rule 102 of Order XXI CPC—The Court held that Rule 102 prevents transferees pendente lite from resisting or obstructing the execution of the decree, thereby dismissing her objections—The Court further dismissed her application for the restoration of the suit, filed after a delay of over two years, as being an afterthought—Despite the petitioner’s claims of being unaware of the case status, the Appellate Court and Trial Court found that she had knowl...