Additional evidence under Order 41 Rule 27 must be decided before appeal disposal; remand followed.

An appellate court must decide applications for additional evidence under Order 41 Rule 27 CPC on merits before disposing of the appeal, assessing necessity for judgment, admissible grounds, and whether the request is merely to fill gaps. Where both sides seek to rely on further material, those applications must be determined first and the appeal decided only thereafter. A prior decision cannot control remanded proceedings if it conflicts with specific remand directions already issued. The impugned judgment was set aside and the matter remanded to the High Court for fresh disposal after deciding the additional evidence applications in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether the High Court was justified in disposing of the appeals without first deciding the parties' applications for reception of additional evidence under Order 41 Rule 27 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and whether the earlier decision relied on by the High Court could govern the remanded proceedings.

Analysis: The order under Order 41 Rule 27 required a merits-based determination on the admissibility and relevance of the documents sought to be produced in appeal. An appellate court must examine whether additional evidence is necessary for pronouncing judgment, whether it falls within the recognised grounds for admission, and whether it is being used only to fill gaps in the case. Since both sides had sought to rely on additional materials, the High Court was bound to decide those applications first and then adjudicate the appeals on that basis. The prior decision invoked by the High Court could not be treated as governing the matter after the specific remand directions earlier issued by the Court.

Conclusion: The impugned judgment was set aside and the matter was remanded to the High Court for fresh disposal after deciding the applications for additional evidence in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: An appellate court must determine an application for additional evidence under Order 41 Rule 27 on merits before disposing of the appeal, and where such determination is necessary, the appeal must be decided only after that issue is resolved.

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