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Rajinder Kumar vs. Rajender Kumar Kaushik & Anr.

Civil Miscellaneous (Main) Petition · 2026:DHC:7834Decided 15 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
CM(M) 1849/2026CNR: DLHC010390072026
Justice Ajay Digpaul

Background

Rajinder Kumar, a decree-holder who had won a possession/mesne-profits decree over a godown in Najafgarh, challenged two orders of the executing court that (a) rejected his application to bring fresh title documents on record late in the day and (b) took a key witness's evidence affidavit off the record and closed his right to lead further evidence. A rival claimant, Rajender Kumar Kaushik, had separately objected that he, not the judgment-debtor, was in possession of the property.

Decision Breakdown

The High Court held that the executing court had wrongly shut out the decree-holder's documents and witnesses on a technical footing, when the material went to the very heart of the ownership dispute the executing court itself needed to resolve. Relying on the Supreme Court's guidance in Sugandhi v. P. Rajkumar that procedure is the "handmaid of justice," the Court restored the excluded documents and witnesses, but, balancing the genuine delay caused by the decree-holder, conditioned this indulgence on payment of Rs. 25,000 costs to the Delhi High Court Bar Association. The executing court was directed to proceed expeditiously.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will usually prefer deciding a genuine ownership dispute on full evidence rather than on a technical default, but a party who causes delay in producing crucial documents may still be made to pay costs even while being let back into the case.

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