KUMAR MEDICAL HALL Vs. KUMAR CHEMIST

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of present revision petition, challenge has been laid to Order dtd. 18/10/2025 passed by the Commercial Court, Chandigarh, whereby defence of the petitioner has been ordered to be stuck off for having not filed written statement within the prescribed period of 30 + 90 i.e. 120 days from the date of service of summons.

(2.) Counsel for the petitioner assails the impugned order submitting that the same cannot be sustained as the limitation for filing written statement as prescribed under Order VIII Rule 1 CPC shall commence from the date of service of summons only if the complete paper book is supplied to the defendant. In the present case, though the petitioner defendant was served before 9/5/2025 for getting the complete paper book he had to move an application. It is only along with the reply to the said application that he was supplied complete paper book along with the documents by the plaintiff in the Court on 9/7/2025 and thus the time period prescribed for filing written statement shall commence not from the date of service of the defendant-petitioner but from the day he was supplied the complete paper book. In order to hammerforth his contention, he relies upon ratio of law laid down by a Co ordinate Bench in the case of 'Yograjsinh Laljibhai Yadav versus M/s Eco Emission Xchange Private Limited', reported as 2026 NCPHHC 13466.

(3.) Per contra, Mr. Sharma, learned Senior counsel for the respondent, submits that the petitioner has not approached the Court with clean hands. He refers to the Order dtd. 9/5/2025 to submit that the defendant appeared on the said date and their counsel filed memo of appearance whereas in an application filed on 9/5/2025, defendant claimed that they have been served a day prior to 9/7/2025. Thus, it itself shows that the defendant was in possession of complete paper book prior to the filing of the said application.