Deoki Nandan, J. - (1.) This revision application under Section 115 of the Civil P. C. is directed against an order dated 30th May, 1981, of the Court of the 1st Additional District Judge, Allahabad refusing the applicant's prayer for examining three of the witnesses on commission, in the course of the trial of a divorce petition. The wife is the applicant in this Court and the opposite party husband is the petitioner for divorce of the District Court. The ground on which the application for examination of the witnesses on commission was made is that these witnesses reside at Dehradun which is a place more than 500 KM away from Allahabad, the place where the petition for divorce between the parties is being tried. Rule 19 of Order 16 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides. "No one shall be offered to attend in person to give evidence unless he resides. (a) within the local limits of the Court's original jurisdiction, or (b) without such limits but at a place less than one hundred or where there is railway or steamer communication or other established public conveyance or private conveyances run for hire for five-sixths of the distance between the place where he resides and the place where the Court is situated less than five hundred kilometers distance from the Court-house:-- "Provided that where transport by air is available between the two places mentioned in this rule and the witness is paid the fare by air, he may be ordered to attend in person." The witnesses are (1) Sri Arvind Nath Vashisht, (2) Smt. Aruna Vashisht, and (3) Smt. Prakash Vashisht. It may be here stated that on an application made under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, the sum of Rs. 1,500/- was allowed to the applicant for meeting the expenses of her defence in the divorce proceeding. In the application for expenses the total amount claimed was Rs. 5,000/-. Out of that Rs. 1,000/- was claimed for summoning evidence from Dehradun, and in the order granting the expenses some allowance has been made for travelling of the applicant from Dehradun and also "something on the witnesses." No application for maintenance pendente lite was made, obviously because the applicant wife is employed and is getting a salary of about Rs. 600/-per month.
(2.) The objections to the application for examining the said three witnesses on commission were that the list of witnesses was not filed in compliance with Rule 1 of Order 16 of the Civil P. C. and the names of these three witnesses disclosed for the first time in the affidavit filed in support of the application for the issue of commission. It was then said that the first witness is the cousin of the applicant wife and took active part in the settlement of marriage from the applicant's side the second witness was his wife, and the third witness was the applicant's mother. It was accordingly not at all necessary to summon any of these witnesses as they will come of their own accord. It was added that for effective cross-examination of these witnesses, the petitioner-husband's presence at Dehradun will be indispensable but there was imminent danger to his life at Dehradun or Rishikesh. It was also added that it was in the interest of a just and fair trial that the witnesses were examined before the Court.
(3.) The learned Additional District Judge has rejected the application on the ground that the application or the affidavit filed in support of it do not disclose any reason as to why the statements of these witnesses should be taken on commission and the mere allegation that they were residents of a place which is about 600 kilometers from Allahabad was not sufficient for the issue of commission, as it must be shown by a party moving such an application that the evidence of such witnesses is necessary in the interest of justice that, nothing has been said in the application or the affidavit to show that the evidence of these witnesses is necessary in the interest of justice, and lastly, it was added, that the witnesses are under the control of the applicant, and in view of these facts the application was liable to be rejected.;