The Delhi High Court has dismissed an application by plaintiff seeking to lead rebuttal evidence in a commercial suit for enforcement of an agreement to sell.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora held that the plaintiff’s effort to place on record an affidavit clarifying a WhatsApp chat of 21 September 2021 and related meeting was impermissible. The Court observed that the facts were within the plaintiff’s knowledge from the outset but were not pleaded or included in his evidence affidavit, and he had opportunity to deal with them during cross-examination.
Permitting rebuttal evidence at this stage, the Court ruled, would “amount to allowing the plaintiff to fill the lacunae in his case after the closure of evidence,” which is not permissible in law.
The application was accordingly dismissed, and the matter listed before the Roster Bench on 12 September 2025 for final hearing.
Appearances:
Plaintiff: Mr. Rupesh Tyagi and Mr. Samyak Raj, Advs
Defendant: Mr. Saurabh Seth, Ms. Neelampreet Kaur and Mr. Abhiroop Rathore, Advs.
