IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD MONDAY, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND TEN PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE VILAS V. AFZULPURKAR CIVIL REVISION PETITION No.2406 OF 2009 BETWEEN Mari Venkata Ratnam. …PETITIONER AND Marri Padmaja. …RESPONDENT Counsel for the petitioner: MR. M. VENKATRAMANA REDDY Counsel for the Respondent: --NONE APPEARED-- The Court made the following: - ORDER: The respondent in O.P.No.140 of 2007 on the file of the Judge, Family Court, Visakhapatnam filed an application for amendment of counter seeking permission to raise a specific plea in the counter that he is professing Christianity and as such, the alleged marriage between him and the respondent herein is not valid. On the said application, the Court below observed that though the said plea is not taken in the counter but the same can be proved by filing documentary evidence during trial and consequently, held that the application for amendment is unnecessary and dismissed the same. Aggrieved thereby this revision is preferred. 2. This Court issued notice on admission on 12.06.2009 and granted interim stay and in spite of service of notice there is no appearance entered on behalf of the respondent. 3. The application filed by the revision petitioner seeks amendment of counter by inserting para 6(a) after para 5 wherein the plea, as aforesaid, is sought to be raised. It is trite that in the absence of any plea, the evidence cannot be let in and as such, the Court below was not right in dismissing the application by observing that the petitioner can always lead evidence. That part of the impugned order, therefore, is unsustainable and the revision petitioner, who is opposing the application of the respondent before the family Court, can even otherwise take all pleas including inconsistent pleas. The application for amendment, therefore, ought to have been allowed. The impugned order is accordingly set aside. The respondent shall, however, have liberty to file a rejoinder to the amended counter within the time that will be allowed for that purpose by the Court below. The civil revision petition is accordingly allowed. There shall be no order as to costs. _____________________ VILAS V. AFZULPURKAR, J November 15, 2010 DSK