Supreme Court of India was dealing with the appeal challenging an order passed by the High Court on 12.08.2021 whereby delay of 193 days in filing of the written statement was not condoned.
Order 8 Rule 1 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 provides for a time limit for filing of written statements by the defendant. The procedural provision gives the defendant enough time to file a written statement after receiving the summons and ensures that the defendant does not misuse the provision to harass the plaintiff by delaying the proceedings.
The Hon'ble Supreme Court's interpretation of the aforementioned Order can be seen in a series of judgements. The Supreme Court has indicated clearly that the maximum time allowed for filing written statements is 120 days (30 days following service of summons + 90 days grace period). This restriction is solely applicable to commercial cases. In non-commercial suits, the time limit for filing a written statement under Order VIII Rule 1 of the code is a guideline rather than a necessity. It indicates that granting further time beyond 120 days is at the discretion of the court and varies from case to case.
Now the plaintiff in this case filed an injunction suit. The High Court upheld the Trial Court's decision to refuse to excuse the 193-day delay in filing the written statement on the grounds that there was no reasonable explanation and logical justification for the delay.
The bench consists of J. Hemant Gupta and J. V. Ramasubramanian stated that admittedly, the suit for injunction filed by the plaintiff is not the one which is governed by the Commercial Court Act, 2015. Therefore, the time limit for filing of the written statement under Order VIII Rule 1 of CPC is not mandatory in view of the judgment of this Court reported as ‘Kailash V. Nankhu & Ors.’ reported in (2005) 4 SCC 480.
SC further stated that in view of the aforesaid judgment, we find that the delay in filing of the written statement could very well be compensated with costs but denying the benefit of filing of the written statement is unreasonable.
SC allowed the appeal and set aside the order passed by the High Court. The bench ordered the trial Court to expedite the decision of the suit keeping in view the old age of the plaintiff.
Case Title: Bharat Kalra v. Raj Kishan Chabra
Bench: J. Hemant Gupta and J. V. Ramasubramanian
Citation: CIVIL APPEAL NO.3788 OF 2022
Decided on: 9th May, 2022
Read Judgment @Latestlaws.com
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