Commercial courts disallow belated filing of documents

Delhi High Court, in the case of Nitin Gupta v Texmaco Infrastructure & Holding, has once again sent a signal that the courts are determined to ensure ease of doing business in India by faster disposal of commercial suits.

The court dismissed an application under order XI rule 1(5) & 1(6) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), filed to put on record additional documents after the framing of issues, which can be used as a dilatory tactic by the parties to delay the suits.

In the Texmaco Infrastructure case, the plaintiff’s application seeking permission to file a letter, purportedly to have been exchanged between the parties, was opposed on the grounds that this suit was a commercial suit. Order XI rule 1(5), as applicable to commercial suits, provides that the plaintiff shall not be allowed to rely on documents that were in the plaintiff’s power, possession, control or custody but not disclosed with the plaint or within the extended period, if granted, except by leave of court, which is to be granted only after establishing a reasonable cause for non-disclosure.

Also, order XI rule 1(6) requires the plaintiff in a commercial suit to set out in detail the documents and order XI rules 1(2) and (3) require a declaration of documents to be made on oath. Not only did the plaintiff not disclose while filing the suit that there was any such document addressed by the defendant to the plaintiff that was not immediately available to him, the plaintiff, in fact, declared that there was no document other than those filed.

Deepak Sabharwal is the managing partner of Deepak Sabharwal & Associates.

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