In Patent Suits With High Stakes, Right To File Written Statement Can’t Be Forfeited At The Outset: Rajasthan HC [Read Judgment]

120-day period to file WS start from date of dismissal of plea for rejection of suitThe Rajasthan High Court has held that in a patent suit where huge stakes are being claimed by the parties, if the right to file written statement is forfeited at the outset, it will lead to the party whose right is forfeited to first suffer temporary injunction and then a final decree to be able to persuade. 120-day period to file WS start from date of dismissal of plea for rejection of suit The Rajasthan High Court has held that in a patent suit where huge stakes are being claimed by the parties, if the right to file written statement is forfeited at the outset, it will lead to the party whose right is forfeited to first suffer temporary injunction and then a final decree to be able to persuade the court to reverse it by allowing it to file written statement followed by a de-novo trial leading to travesty of justice. The bench was hearing a petition filed by Shri Balaji Industrial Products Limited wherein its counsel, senior advocate Sudhir Chandra and RP Singh assisted by Abhay Jain and Prekhar Gupta submitted that it would be required to file written statement within 120 days from the date of rejection of the application filed by it under Order VII Rule 11 CPC. Balaji Industrial Products Ltd moved the high court against the order of the Commercial Court whereby the application filed by it under Order VI Rule 15A read with Section 4 of the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015, as suit being not “duly instituted” in absence of “Statement of Truth” envisaged in Order VI Rule 15A, and written statement filed after rejection of application filed under Order VII Rule 11 of CPC was dismissed reckoning 120 days from filing of suit and not from the order of dismissal of the application filed under Order VII Rule 11 of CPC.