The Delhi High Court has held that time during which the parties remain in mediation process can be excluded from computation of limitation period for filing the Written Statement under Delhi High Court (Original Side) Rules, 2018.

The Court was considering Appeals filed by Defendants in a Suit under Chapter II Rule 5 of the Delhi High Court (Original Side) Rules, 2018 challenging an Order passed by the Joint Registrar dismissing the applications filed by them seeking condonation of delay in filing the written statement.

The single-bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad observed, "The Mediation failed on 24.01.2023. The Defendant No.1 has filed a written statement on 09.04.2023 that is within the period of 120 days and Defendant No.4 has filed his written statement on 12.04.2023 which is again within 120 days, excluding the time spent in Mediation......This Court is therefore inclined to exclude the time period from 02.11.2022 to 24.01.2023 for calculating the limitation."

The Petitioner was represented by Advocate Abhimanyu Mahajan while the Respondent was represented by Advocate Utsav Trivedi.

Facts of the Case

The Suit was filed for partition of properties. During the course of hearing, it was submitted by the Defendants that the copies of plaint and documents are not legible and accordingly, the Court directed the Plaintiff to supply the legible copies of the plaint and documents to all the Defendants within one week. On instance of the Plaintiff, the matter was referred to Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre. It was jointly submitted by the Defendants that since the matter was referred to mediation, they may be allowed to file their written statement only after the mediation proceedings are completed and the request for deferring the filing of the written statement was accepted. The mediation proceedings failed, and Defendants filed written statement. Later, they filed an IA under Order VIII Rule 1 of CPC seeking condonation of delay of 74 and 77 days in filing the written statements. The Joint Registrar dismissed the applications for condonation of delay and observed that the written statements have been filed much beyond the period prescribed in the CPC as well as Delhi High Court (Original Side) Rules, 2018. Joint Registrar further ordered that the written statements along with affidavit of admission/denial and documents filed be taken off record and the documents filed by the Plaintiff with the plaint are deemed to be admitted as per relevant provisions of the Delhi High Court (Original Side) Rules, 2018. Present Appeals were present against these impugned orders.

Reasoning By Court

Noting that it is a settled law that the period of 120 days is sacrosanct and beyond that period written statement cannot be filed and, therefore, the time cannot be extended, the Court pointed out that the question in this case was as to whether the time when the parties are in mediation should be excluded or not.

The Court was of the opinion that forcing the parties to file a written statement or to complete the pleadings during the process of mediation will prevent the parties in freely communicating with each other which they have not been able to since the dispute started.

"In the opinion of this Court, if parties are attempting to mediate and settle the dispute and are forced to file written statements then this will hamper the entire mediation process and would be detrimental to the spirit of Mediation which ensures a just solution acceptable to all the parties to the dispute thereby achieving a win-win situation. In the opinion of this Court, forcing the parties to file a written statement or to complete the pleadings during the process of mediation will prevent the parties in freely communicating with each other which they have not been able to since the dispute started," the Court observed.

After due analysis, the Court was inclined to exclude the time period of mediation process for calculating the limitation.

The Appeals were accordingly disposed off.

Cause Title: Bharat Singh vs. Karan Singh And Others (2025:DHC:777)

Appearances:

Appellants- Advocate Abhimanyu Mahajan, Advocate Abhimanyu Walia, Advocate Anubha Goyal, Advocate Tanishq Sirohi, Advocate Ishani Pillai

Respondents- Advocate Utsav Trivedi, Advocate Himanshu Sachdeva, Advocate Anudatt Dubey, Advocate Chand Chopra, Advocate Neha Bhupathiraju, Advocate Saurav Agarwal, Advocate Sunanda Tulsyan, Advocate Anshuman Choudhary, Advocate Akhil Sachar,

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Delhi High CourtJustice Subramonium Prasad

Sheetal Joon