Delhi High Court Dismissed the appeal challenging the order of a district court due to lack of filing of written statement on time.
Title: SANTOSH KUMAR AGGARWAL vs M/S ALUCO PANEL LIMITED
Date of Decision: 05th July, 2023
+ RFA(COMM) 131/2023
CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE MANMOHAN
HON’BLE MS. JUSTICE MINI PUSHKARNA
Introduction
Delhi High Court Dismissed the appeal challenging the order of a district court due to lack of filing of written statement on time thus defence for lack of territorial jurisdiction could not be raised.
Facts of the case
Present appeal has been filed challenging the order dated 11th November, 2022 passed by the learned District Judge in CS No.1235/2018 whereby the suit was decreed in favour of the respondent-plaintiff.
Analysis and Decision of the case
This Court determines that the appellant-defendant did not file the written statement or raise any defences despite participating throughout the suit processes, having heard the learned appellant’s counsel and having read the paper book. Despite the fact that an application under ruling IX Rule 7 CPC and an application under Order VII Rule 11 CPC were both submitted on October 17, 2019, both on the grounds that the Court lacked geographical jurisdiction, the applications were both rejected by a detailed ruling dated October 13, 2022. It is established law that a written statement cannot be filed more than 120 days after it is due. (See: 2019 SCC 210, SCG Contract (India) Pvt. Ltd. vs. K.S. Chamankar Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. As a result, the order dated 17th October, 2019 is in accordance with law.
Additionally, this Court believes that the defences of non-delivery of goods against bills nos. 10 and 30 and lack of jurisdiction in the current case are valid arguments. The Trial Court was unable to address the aforementioned defences since, in the current instance, the opportunity to provide a written statement had expired because it had not been submitted within the allotted time frame.
Additionally, this Court also believes that the decision interpreting Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act prospectively renders the statute effective as of August 20, 2022. The aforementioned judgement offers no support to the appellant because the lawsuit in the current instance was filed in 2018.
As a result, the current appeal is dismissed together with any pending petitions since it lacks merit.
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Written By – Shreyanshu Gupta