GHANSHYAM DAS AGARWALA Vs. KISTURIBALA DEBI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is the defendant in a suit on a mortgage in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Dhanbad. He applied for the examination on commission of two of his witnesses who do not live within the jurisdiction of the Court, one residing at Gwalior and the other at Lucknow. THE Court directed the defendant to file interrogatories which he wished to be put to the witnesses. When this had been done, four days time was granted for the plaintiff to file cross- interrogatories. Instead of filing cross-interrogatories the plaintiff objected to the issue of the commission. THE Court then directed that the commission should issue only on condition that the defendant paid to the plaintiff Rs. 200 as costs of the plaintiff in attending the commission. In revision it is contended that that order is without jurisdiction.

(2.) IT appears however that in a similar case, Villiers, Ltd. V/s. C.J. Smith Civil Revn. No. 102 of 1926, decided on 11 May 1926, Bucknill, C.J., held that an order like the present was within the competence of the Court. That decision appears not to have been overruled. In these circumstances the order of the Court below will be modified to this extent: that the money will not be paid directly to the plaintiff, but will be deposited in Court as security for such costs as may be payable to the opposite party in the matter of commission. With this modification the application is dismissed with costs.