Court Doesn't Have Skill, Expertise To Match Signatures In Documents Produced Before It, Should Obtain Handwriting Expert Opinion: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court has held that a court does not have the skill or the expertise to match signatures in the documents produced before it and must obtain the opinion of a handwriting expert instead of perusing them with bare eyes. While dealing with a case of rejection of application for handwriting expert to verify signatures made in Gurumukhi by the Small Causes Court, Justice Ajit Kumar held “In the circumstances, therefore, the Court itself cannot be considered to be having the needed expertise and skill to match the signatures on various documents produced before the Court.” Revisionist was a tenant of the erstwhile landlady Harbhajan Kaur whose son Sardar Devendra Singh allegedly issued the rent receipts in his mother's name. “All these are complex questions of fact which needed to be determined but the core issue germane to the controversy has been whether the last receipt also bore the signature of Harbhajan Kaur and if the handwriting expert gives opinion that all the signatures are with the same flow of handwriting then there would be a valid defence set up by the petitioner that he was not in arrears.” In O. Bharathan v. K. Sudhakaran and another, the Apex Court had held that though there is no bar on the judge examining handwritings, opinion of an expert should be taken as a matter of caution and prudence. “In the present case I find that the disputed receipts which were issued in 2019 as crucial ones, that required determination as to the authenticity of signatures and thus I find it to be more appropriate for the Court to have obtained handwriting expert opinion instead of comparing the two documents by Judge's own bare eyes,” held Justice Kumar.