ELITE PACKAGING Vs. VASU POLYMERS INDIA PVT. LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India assails orders dtd. 26/3/2022, 9/5/2022 and 10/5/2022 passed by the learned District Judge (Commercial Courts) ("the learned Commercial Court") in CS (Comm) 275/20 (Vasu Polymers India Pvt. Ltd. v. Elite Packaging and Ors.). The petitioner was the defendant in the said suit and the respondent was the plaintiff.

(2.) Summons in the suit were issued on 20/11/2020. Written statement, accompanied by affidavit of statement of truth, was filed by the petitioner on 30/1/2021. Affidavit of admission and denial, as required by Order XI Rule 4(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, as amended by the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 was not filed by the petitioner. The matter was thereafter listed before the learned Commercial Court on 19/3/2021, 30/4/2021, 6/9/2021, 15/11/2021, 12/1/2022 and 26/3/2022. As no affidavit of admission and denial, on the part of the petitioner, was forthcoming, the learned Commercial Court, vide order dtd. 26/3/2022, closed the right of the petitioner to file affidavit of admission and denial. This decision constitutes the first decision under challenge in the present proceedings.

(3.) Mr. Kumar Utkarsh, learned Counsel for the petitioner has no ready explanation as to why no affidavit of admission and denial was filed till 26/3/2022, despite summons having been issued to the petitioner as far back as on 20/11/2020. He seeks, predictably, to capitalise on the existing COVID-19 pandemic and contends that both the petitioner as well as his Counsel were in Bombay.