Amendment To Affidavit For Incorporating Statement Of Truth Impermissible: Jharkhand High Court
The Jharkhand High Court has reiterated that an amendment to the affidavit in a commercial suit pleading, seeking to incorporate a statement of truth, is impermissible under the provisions of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.
The Court emphasised that the statement of truth must be filed in the prescribed format under Rule 15A of the Act, and cannot be amended by altering the affidavit annexed to the plaint.
Justice Subhash Chand, presiding over the case, observed, “It is the settled law that the amendment can be made in pleadings which includes plaint and written statement and in view of settled propositions of law the applications in any proceeding as well. It was incumbent upon the learned court below that to provide opportunity to file the statement of truth i.e. affidavit in a prescribed form of the Rule-15A schedule in addition or in place of the general affidavit which was annexed with the plaint; but no amendment could have been allowed for the same in the affidavit.”
“But in the case in hand the very amendment was sought on behalf of plaintiff to amend the statement of truth in the plaint. The same is not permissible since the affidavit does not come within the purview of pleading, if any, affidavit has not been properly filed in view of the Schedule as prescribed under Rule-15A of Commercial Court Act the only course which was available to the plaintiff was to file the statement of truth the format of the same is given in the schedule of the Act itself and which is nothing but affidavit,” Justice Chand added.
The case concerned a Commercial Suit , filed before the trial court where the plaintiff had sought to amend the plaint by including a statement of truth under Rule 15A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. The plaintiff had sought the amendment through an application under Order VI Rule 17 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC), but this was opposed by the defendants.
The petitioners argued that the amendment to include a statement of truth was not permissible under the Commercial Courts Act, as Rule 15A mandates that every pleading in a commercial dispute must be verified by an affidavit in the prescribed format under the Act. The petitioners further argued that the affidavit annexed to the plaint did not comply with the statutory requirements of Rule 15A, and therefore, the plaintiff should have been given the opportunity to file the statement of truth as per the prescribed form, rather than seeking an amendment to the affidavit.
The court below, however, allowed the amendment application, which the petitioners challenged in the High Court.
The High Court set aside the impugned order, remanded the matter to the trial court, and directed that the plaintiff be given the opportunity to file the statement of truth in the prescribed format. The amendment that had already been incorporated into the plaint was ordered to be struck off.
The Court stated, "the very amendment application which has been allowed by the learned court below is based on perverse finding and needs interference."
Case Name: M/s City Alloys Private Limited & Ors vs M/s Hari Om & Co.
LL Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Jha) 197