Hassad Food Company Q.S.C. Vs Bank Of India

The Additional Documents Sought to put on record by the Plaintiffs were  Monthly inventory statements submitted by Bush Foods to the banks (April 2011 - October 2013). Emails and attachments from the plaintiffs' independent professional agency (GPW) providing details of the correspondence between Bush Foods and the defendant banks.SWIFT statements to prove the payments made by the plaintiffs to the defendant banks.Court orders in the FIR registered against Bush Foods and others.Minutes of the Board of Directors' meeting of Bush Foods held on July 4, 2013.

The main contention of the defendant is that the court's decision to allow the plaintiffs to place additional documents on record in a commercial suit alleging fraud and misrepresentation by the defendant banks, subject to the payment of costs, noting that the plaintiffs have made out a reasonable cause for the non-disclosure of the documents with the plaint, is wrong. 

The court distinguished between the terms 'good cause' and 'reasonable cause', noting that 'reasonable cause' requires a lower degree of proof compared to 'good cause'. The court held that under Order XI Rule 1(5) of the Commercial Courts Act, which uses the phrase 'reasonable cause', the plaintiffs' explanation of administrative oversight leading to the non-filing of the documents with the plaint was sufficient to allow the filing of the additional documents. 

The court addressed the defendants' objections by noting that the defendants did not dispute the relevance of the documents, and the only objection was that the plaintiffs could not file the documents at this stage. However, the court observed that the pleadings were not complete yet, as the plaintiffs' replications had not been taken on record. The court also noted that the plaintiffs were neither setting up a new case nor withdrawing any admission, and that in similar situations, courts have permitted the filing of additional documents.

The court allowed the plaintiffs to file the additional documents on the basis that the plaintiffs had made out a 'reasonable cause' for not filing the documents with the plaint, as required under Order XI Rule 1(5) of the Commercial Courts Act. The court noted that the plaintiffs had filed a voluminous number of documents with the plaint, and the non-filing of these additional documents was due to an 'administrative oversight', rather than the plaintiffs trying to set up a new case.

Case Citation: Hassad Food Company Q.S.C. Vs Bank Of India: 15.10.2019/CS(COMM) 9/2018 :2019:DHC:5253: Delhi High Court:Mukta Gupta. H.J.

Written By: Advocate Ajay Amitabh Suman

IP Adjutor [Patent and Trademark Attorney]

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