The 120-Day Written Statement Deadline Explained

The short answer

In a commercial suit you have 30 days from the date the summons is served to file your written statement. If you can't make it, the court may give you more time, but only for reasons it records in writing, and only on payment of costs. And it can't go past 120 days from service. When day 120 ends, the defendant forfeits the right to file a written statement. The court is then barred from taking one on record.

That's Order VIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), in the form the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 gave it for commercial disputes. Order VIII Rule 10 was changed at the same time, so no court can allow more time than Rule 1 permits. In SCG Contracts (India) Pvt. Ltd. v. K.S. Chamankar Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (2019), the Supreme Court confirmed that the 120-day limit is mandatory. Courts have no power to stretch it. None.

Ordinary civil suits are different. There the 90-day outer limit has long been treated as directory, and judges do sometimes accept a late written statement in exceptional cases. Lawyers and clients used to those suits tend to assume commercial courts are just as forgiving. They aren't. That one assumption is behind a lot of lost defences.

The rules that set the deadline

When does the 120-day clock start?

From the day the summons is served on you. Not the day the suit was filed, and not the first hearing date. Service means the court's summons together with a copy of the plaint and the documents relied on. If you got a summons without the plaint or its documents, courts have in many cases counted time from when you received the full set. Don't lean on that unless you can prove what was missing. And object in writing at the first chance you get.

Papers can reach you in more ways than you'd expect. Registered post, courier, a process server, email, or a messaging service where the court has permitted it. If your advocate appears in court and collects a complete copy of the plaint and documents, courts have often treated that as service even without a formal summons. And once a company's authorised person signs for the papers, the clock is running. Whether the legal department has seen them doesn't matter.

Sometimes the plaintiff sends an advance copy before filing, which Delhi courts often insist on when urgent relief is being sought, and the defendant rings us worried that the clock has started. That copy alone doesn't start the clock. The court's summons does. But treat an advance copy as free time and start work on it, because 30 days goes very quickly once the summons arrives.

Counting the days

Count cautiously. The day of service is generally left out, and counting starts the next day. Day 30 is when the written statement should ideally be in, with nothing to ask the court for. Day 120 is the absolute end. It doesn't move. In real life, aim to file well before either, so you've got time to cure whatever defects the registry points out.

Two traps come up again and again. One is court holidays. If day 120 falls on a day the court is shut, there's room for argument about whether filing on the next working day is good enough. Don't give anyone that argument. File earlier. The other trap is e-filing. Delhi and many other courts take pleadings electronically, and the registry may mark defects. A filing stuck in defects and refiled after day 120 can be treated as late. Cure defects the same day if you possibly can.

There was one exception in recent years, and it's over. During Covid-19 the Supreme Court excluded the period from 15 March 2020 to 28 February 2022 from limitation, and applied that exclusion to the time for written statements in commercial suits. That window has closed, and nothing like it is on offer today, so don't go looking for a Covid-style rescue.

The timeline on one page

From the day the summons lands: what to do

Follow this order. Most of it fits comfortably into the first two weeks after service, if the papers reach the right desk quickly.

1. Record the date of service and call your lawyer that day

   Note exactly when and how the papers came, and keep the envelope, the courier slip or the email they arrived in. Send the whole set to your lawyer straight away. Each day the file spends moving between departments comes out of your 30.

2. Check what was served, and what wasn't

   Go through the plaint and tick off the documents it mentions. If something's missing, ask for it in writing and note the date. That protects you if there's a fight later over when service was complete.

3. Settle preliminary objections early

   If an arbitration clause covers the dispute, a Section 8 application under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has to be made no later than the date of your first statement on the substance of the dispute. If you think the court lacks jurisdiction or the plaint is defective, get those objections ready too. None of them stops the 120-day clock. Work on the written statement alongside.

4. Pull together documents and facts

   The contract, purchase orders, invoices, letters and emails, delivery records, quality complaints, ledgers, anything that backs your version. Order XI makes you disclose every relevant document you hold, the ones that hurt as well. You usually can't rely later on documents you didn't disclose.

5. Reply paragraph by paragraph

   Take each paragraph of the plaint and answer it. Admitted. Denied, with reasons. Or not within your knowledge. Then add your own account of events, any set-off and any counterclaim. In a commercial suit, a vague denial can be read as an admission.

6. Sort out signatures and the statement of truth

   A company's signatory needs a board resolution or authority letter. Arrange it early. A director stuck abroad, or an internal approval that crawls, is one of the commonest reasons companies slide past day 30.

7. File, and fix defects at once

   File the written statement, the documents list, the declaration and the statement of truth together. Then keep checking the registry status until it's accepted. If you're past day 30, file with an application explaining the delay, and expect to pay costs.

A summary suit under Order XXXVII runs on a different, even tighter timetable. You enter appearance within 10 days, and apply for leave to defend within 10 days of service of the summons for judgment. A written statement comes only if leave is granted.

Costs and reasons: what the court wants for a delay

Between day 31 and day 120, it's up to the court whether to take your written statement on record. It has to record reasons, and it'll usually impose costs. Your reasons need to be specific, and true: when the summons actually arrived, why the documents took time to gather, a signatory who was ill or travelling, any delay in getting copies. A one-line application saying the defendant needs more time tends to attract heavier costs. Or a refusal.

Costs vary a lot. They turn on how long the delay was, what reasons you gave, the size of the claim and the habits of the particular judge. Sometimes they go to the plaintiff, sometimes to a legal services fund or a bar welfare fund. Pay on time. A written statement taken on record on condition of costs can be in danger if the costs aren't paid.

Missed the 120 days. What now?

The right to file a written statement is gone. So is your chance to set out your own version of the facts in a pleading. The court may pronounce judgment under Order VIII Rule 10, or it may make the plaintiff prove its case through evidence. The plaintiff can also apply for summary judgment under Order XIIIA on the footing that you have no real prospect of defending.

You aren't completely gagged, though. Courts have generally let a defendant with no written statement on record cross-examine the plaintiff's witnesses and argue on the plaintiff's own pleadings and evidence. You can show the plaintiff's documents don't prove what it says they prove. Or that its own dates make the claim time-barred. What you can't do is lead evidence on a case you never pleaded.

Ways around the deadline rarely work. Applications to extend time after day 120 get rejected. Petitions asking the High Court to use its supervisory powers have met the same fate since SCG Contracts. The one real exception is defective service, where the clock never properly started. If a decree has already been passed and you genuinely weren't served, your remedy is an application under Order IX Rule 13 to set aside the ex parte decree.

Which court, and why the defendant should care

You file the written statement in the court where the suit is pending. Even if you're convinced it's the wrong court. In Delhi, suits valued up to Rs 2 crore sit with the District Judge (Commercial Court) at a district complex such as Saket, Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka or Patiala House. Above that figure, it's the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court. There's been a proposal since late 2025 to raise the district court limit, so check where it stands. In Uttar Pradesh and Haryana the suit will be before the court designated as Commercial Court for the district, like those for Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Gurugram and Faridabad.

If you think the suit is in the wrong court on value or territory, say so in the written statement, with reasons, as Order VIII Rule 3A requires, and consider a separate application as well. But don't hold back the written statement while that's argued. An application to reject or return the plaint doesn't freeze the 120 days. Picture a defendant who loses on jurisdiction and has nothing on record. That's the worst place to be. The value and territory rules are on our guide to which court hears a commercial case.

On the Delhi High Court's original side, the court's own rules also fix a hard outer limit for written statements, in some non-commercial suits too. If you're sued there, check which rule governs your suit instead of assuming the ordinary-suit flexibility applies.

A good written statement, even in a hurry

A rushed written statement beats none. A thin one can do nearly as much damage, though. In a commercial suit the written statement isn't just a reply. It fixes the issues the court will frame. It decides which documents you can rely on, and it sets the edges of what your witnesses can say. Leave something out now and it's hard to bring in later, because amendments after the case has moved on are allowed sparingly.

Open with preliminary objections that genuinely apply. Limitation, jurisdiction, valuation, an arbitration clause, no Section 12A mediation where no urgent relief was sought, or a plaintiff with no right to sue (an unregistered partnership firm, for example). Then go through the plaint paragraph by paragraph. For each allegation, say whether it's admitted, denied or not known, and where you deny it, explain why and what really happened. Close with your own account of the dispute, in plain date order, followed by any set-off or counterclaim.

Keep it factual. Commercial court judges read stacks of pleadings every week. A written statement full of adjectives and blanket denials tells them the defendant has little to say. A shorter document that meets every point with dates, amounts and references to the filed documents does far better. Advocate B.K. Singh reads every draft defence against the plaint line by line, looking for any allegation left unanswered. In a commercial suit, silence can be read as admission.

What goes in with the written statement

• The written statement itself, with replies paragraph by paragraph, your own version, and any set-off or counterclaim
• A statement of truth under Order VI Rule 15A, signed by an authorised person who knows the facts
• The Order XI Rule 1 list of documents, covering everything in your power, possession, control or custody
• A declaration on oath that you've disclosed all relevant documents
• Copies of the documents you rely on, paginated and indexed
• A certificate under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 for emails, WhatsApp chats and other electronic records
• The vakalatnama and, for a company, a board resolution or authority letter for whoever signs
• If you're past day 30, an application explaining the delay, with proof of the reasons
• Any Section 8 application under the Arbitration Act, or objections on jurisdiction or valuation, filed at the same time

For plaintiffs: using the deadline fairly

If you're the plaintiff, the 120-day rule works for you. But only if service is clean. Make sure the summons, the plaint and every document actually reached the defendant, and keep proof of the date. Courts look hard at service before closing a defendant's right. A sloppy service report hands the defendant an argument that the clock never started.

If no written statement comes in within 120 days, ask the court to record that the right is forfeited. Then push the case on. That might mean leading evidence quickly, or applying for summary judgment. When Advocate B.K. Singh acts for a plaintiff in this spot, he starts with the service report and the date stamp on it. An order closing the defendant's right is only as good as the proof of service under it.

How it plays out for different businesses

• Suppliers and manufacturers sued over defective goods. Your defence usually rests on inspection reports, acceptance records and the timeline of the buyer's own complaints. Collect them in week one. They're almost never in one place.
• Service firms and IT vendors. Change requests, sign-offs and email threads are normally the heart of the defence. Export them early and get the Section 63 certificate ready, because electronic records without it draw objections.
• Borrowers sued by lenders or investors. Loan and investment fights often turn on side letters and WhatsApp messages. Disclose all of it, including what doesn't help you.
• Startups. Founders tend to handle legal papers themselves until it's too late. The day a summons arrives, it goes to a lawyer. Not into someone's inbox.
• MSMEs. If you're a micro or small supplier and a buyer has sued you, ask whether you've got your own claim for unpaid dues and MSMED interest. That may belong in a counterclaim filed with the written statement.
• Large companies. Internal approvals, several departments and signatories abroad cause most of the delay. Put one named person in charge of the deadline, and give them the authority to get the statement of truth signed.

Mistakes that cost defendants their reply

• Waiting for the first hearing. The clock runs from service, not from your first date in court. By then a good chunk of the 30 days may have gone.
• Treating it like an ordinary suit. The leeway in non-commercial suits doesn't exist here. Day 120 is final.
• Filing only a jurisdiction or rejection application. Neither one stops the clock. File the written statement as well.
• Bare denials. In a commercial suit, a denial with no reasons can be read as an admission.
• Leaving documents out. Anything not disclosed with the written statement usually can't be relied on later without the court's leave, and that needs reasonable cause.
• Ignoring registry defects. An e-filing that's never cured may not count as filed in time.
• Not paying costs. If the court lets you file late on costs, pay them by the date it fixes.

What to do this week

If you've been served, write down the date of service today and count 30 and 120 days from it. Send the full set of papers to your lawyer. Gather the core documents, and get the authority sorted for whoever will sign the statement of truth. If there's an arbitration clause or a jurisdiction point, raise it. Just keep the written statement moving at the same time.

Our defence strategy page and the service page on the 120-day written statement deadline go into what makes a strong defence beyond the deadline itself. When defence files reach Advocate B.K. Singh late, the usual problem isn't a weak case. It's a short clock. The earlier the papers come in, the more options you keep.

If a summons has reached you and you'd like the dates checked and the papers looked at before time runs out, send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.