New Delhi, March 31 -- Taking strong exception to the disappearance of key documents from court records, the Supreme Court has pulled up the Gujarat High Court administration for failing to act, questioning how such a serious lapse could be overlooked even when a litigant's entire case hinged on those documents. A bench of justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R Mahadevan said it was "surprising" that the HC, on its administrative side, had "turned a blind eye" to the loss of original records and had not directed registration of an FIR to fix accountability. "The matter is serious as original documents from the Court's record have been lost, to put it mildly, and nobody has been held accountable," the court observed, setting aside the high court's order that had effectively closed the issue, and ordering a criminal probe into the matter. The controversy arose from a civil suit pending before a court in Gandhinagar, where the plaintiff had produced original documents - including receipts relating to a property transaction - to support their claim. The defendants, however, challenged these documents' authenticity, alleging they were fabricated. They sought forensic examination of the originals - a step central to their defence. But the documents went missing from court custody after the request for forensic analysis, rendering such verification impossible. The defendants argued that the disappearance of these records effectively collapsed their defence, since the very documents they sought to challenge could no longer be examined. htc...