Constitution Bench of Supreme Court: Time limitation provided for filing WS in commercial suits is mandatory [Read the Judgment]

A constitution bench of Supreme Court has observed that in commercial suits, time period provided for filing of written statement is mandatory.

The case is titled as NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO. LTD. vs HILLI MULTIPURPOSE COLD  STORAGE PVT. LTD. dated 04.03.2020.

Supreme Court was dealing with an issue related to effect of limitation period provided in consumer protection act and in that process it quoted an example from the CPC regarding commercial suits.

Supreme Court observed as under:

"It may further be noted that in Order VIII Rule 10 of the Code, for suits filed under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, a proviso has been inserted for ‘commercial disputes of a specified value’ (vide Act 4 of 2016 w.r.e.f. 23.10.2015), which reads as under: “Provided further that no Court shall make an Order to extend the time provided under Rule 1 of this Order for filing the written statement” From the above, it is clear that for commercial suits, time for filing written statement provided under Order VIII Rule 1 is meant to be mandatory, but not so for ordinary civil suits".

Read the Judgment here: