In short. Every plaint, written statement and counter-claim in a commercial suit has to carry a statement of truth. It's a sworn affidavit, in a form the Code of Civil Procedure fixes. Whoever signs it swears the facts are true, nothing material is hidden and every relevant document has been disclosed. If you're suing or being sued in a commercial court, it concerns you. Doing it properly takes a day or two of careful reading. Get it wrong and your pleading may not count as evidence, may be struck out, or may land the signatory with a perjury complaint.
Is this your situation?
- Your lawyer sent over the plaint with a 'statement of truth' at the end, and the paragraph numbers in it are still blank.
- The director is busy, so you've been told the accounts manager will sign. He 'knows the file', apparently.
- After the suit went in, you found another bunch of emails and invoices. Now you're worried about what you swore.
- The other side's lawyer has objected that your pleading has no statement of truth, or a defective one.
- The plaint was amended last month. Nobody filed a fresh statement of truth.
- The one director who should sign is in Dubai, and filing is due next week.
- You're fairly sure the other side's statement of truth is false, and you want to know what you can do.
The short answer
Every pleading in a commercial suit ends with an affidavit called the statement of truth. The source is Order VI Rule 15A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), which the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 inserted for commercial disputes. Your plaint needs one. So do the written statement, the replication and any counter-claim, each verified in the format laid down in the Appendix to the CPC. In it, the person signing sorts the paragraphs into three piles: personal knowledge, information, legal advice. He goes on to swear that nothing material has been kept back and that all relevant documents within the party's control are disclosed.
A bad one can damage you several ways at once. First, a pleading that lacks a proper statement of truth isn't something you can lean on as evidence. Second, the court can strike it out altogether. Lie about your documents and you may lose the right to use the very papers you sat on. Worst of all, swearing something false on purpose is the offence of giving false evidence, and the judge can send it for prosecution. In our experience, nearly all of this comes from rushed signing rather than bad faith. Which means you can avoid it.
This guide is about that one page and the habits around it. The bigger job of preparing a plaint, with every document filed up front, is on our page about how a commercial suit is drafted.
What is a statement of truth in a commercial suit?
It's the signature that turns your lawyer's draft into your own sworn account. Before 2015, a plaint was verified under Order VI Rule 15 with a short line at the bottom. Paragraphs 1 to 12 true to my knowledge, 13 to 18 on information received, the rest on legal advice. The 2002 amendment added a supporting affidavit. In practice, though, verification was often a formality. People signed the last page in a lawyer's chamber at Tis Hazari without reading much.
The Commercial Courts Act made that signature count. Section 16 of the Act amended the CPC as it applies to commercial disputes, and Rule 15A is one of those amendments. It says that, notwithstanding Rule 15, every pleading in a commercial dispute shall be verified by an affidavit in the manner and form prescribed in the Appendix. Lawyers call that affidavit the statement of truth. It isn't a summary of your case. It's a set of promises about it. You're promising it's honest, it's complete, and it's backed by documents you've already shown.
The idea comes from the English civil procedure rules, which have required statements of truth for years. The reasoning is plain enough. Commercial courts are supposed to decide cases quickly, on documents. That only works if both sides put everything on the table at the start and stand behind what they say. The statement of truth is how the law makes them stand behind it.
It applies the same way to a regular commercial suit and to a summary suit under Order XXXVII that's a commercial dispute. And it applies equally in a Delhi district court, in the Delhi High Court, and in the commercial courts for Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram.
The rules behind it
Order VI Rule 15A(1) and (2), CPC (commercial disputes)
Every pleading in a commercial dispute has to be verified by an affidavit in the form given in the Appendix. It's signed by the party, by one of the parties, or by someone on their behalf who is duly authorised and is proved to the court's satisfaction to be acquainted with the facts of the case.
Order VI Rule 15A(3) to (5), CPC
Amend a pleading and you must verify it again in the same form, unless the court orders otherwise. A pleading that isn't verified this way can't be relied on as evidence. Nor can anything set out in it. And the court may strike out a pleading that has no statement of truth.
Appendix to the CPC (Statement of Truth), read with Order XI
This is the prescribed form. Both Order VI Rule 15A and Order XI (the order on disclosure of documents) refer to it. It holds declarations about what the deponent knows, that nothing is false or concealed, that all documents are disclosed, how many pages the pleading runs to, and that the annexures are true copies.
Order XXIX Rule 1, CPC
When a corporation sues or is sued, the secretary, a director or another principal officer who can depose to the facts may sign and verify the pleading. For companies, that's where you begin, but the commercial rule piles two more conditions on top, real acquaintance with the facts and due authority, and a principal officer who has neither won't do.
Sections 227 and 229, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; Section 379, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
Giving false evidence includes making a false statement in a declaration the law requires on oath. If it's done for use in a judicial proceeding, the punishment can go up to seven years with fine. Under Section 379 BNSS, the court can hold a preliminary inquiry and then complain to a magistrate. These sections replaced Sections 191 and 193 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 340 of the old Criminal Procedure Code from 1 July 2024.
Section 35, CPC, as substituted for commercial disputes
Costs usually follow the result. When the court fixes them, it looks at how the parties behaved, including whether someone made a frivolous claim or counter-claim or brought vexatious proceedings that wasted the court's time.
What does the statement of truth actually make you swear?
The form is short. Two pages, usually. Read it slowly anyway, because each paragraph in it is a separate promise you're making to the court, and the other side will hold you to every one of them. The deponent says he or she is the party, or is authorised and competent to swear the affidavit, knows the facts and has examined the relevant documents and records. Then the form splits the pleading into three groups of paragraphs. Some are true to personal knowledge. Some are based on information received and believed to be correct. Some are based on legal advice.
Careless forms usually go wrong at exactly this split. Take a line saying your firm supplied 4,000 cartons on 12 March. Did you watch the truck being loaded? Then it's knowledge. Did the godown in-charge tell you, and you checked the challan yourself? Information. Whether the suit is in time, or whether this court has jurisdiction, is legal advice and nothing else. We still see forms declaring 'paragraphs 1 to 40 are true to my knowledge'. Nobody personally knows the law of limitation. Opposing counsel knows that, and in cross-examination it's often where they start.
Then come the big promises. No false statement, and no concealment of any material fact, document or record. The information relevant to the suit is in there. Every document touching the facts that sits in the party's power, possession, control or custody has been disclosed, copies are annexed, and there are no others. The form also notes how many pages the pleading has, and each page carries the deponent's signature. The annexures are confirmed as true copies. Last, the deponent accepts that a false statement or concealment can bring action under the law.
Under that sits a short verification with place and date. You swear the affidavit before an oath commissioner or notary, and it's filed as part of the pleading. On e-filing portals the scanned, signed version goes up with the plaint or written statement. Some courts want the physical set later too.
Verification of pleadings: how is it different from Order VI Rule 15?
Ordinary verification under Order VI Rule 15 still governs suits that aren't commercial. A partition, a family property matter, a business claim below Rs 3 lakh. The person verifying states, by paragraph number, what's verified on knowledge and what on information, and signs with the date and place. Since 2002 there's been a supporting affidavit as well.
The statement of truth goes further, in three ways. One, it's an affidavit in a fixed form itself, so the declarations about concealment and documents are made expressly on oath. They aren't left implied. Two, it's tied to disclosure under Order XI. In a commercial suit, you can't later rely on a document that was in your power, possession, control or custody and that you didn't disclose, unless the court gives leave on reasonable cause. Three, Rule 15A(4) ties it to evidence. Without one, the pleading can't be relied on as evidence.
That third point matters more than it sounds. Commercial courts can decide a case, or part of one, on the pleadings and documents. They do it on admissions, or on an application for summary judgment under Order XIIIA, without a full trial. A plaint that can't be read as evidence can't carry those applications, which is why courts treat this requirement far more seriously than they ever treated the old-style verification. Rightly so.
Who should sign the statement of truth?
A party, or someone the party has authorised who actually knows the facts. Rule 15A(2) adds the words 'proved to the satisfaction of the Court'. The court can test your choice. For an individual or a proprietor, it's usually the proprietor. For a partnership firm, the partner who handled the dealings. For a company, a director or officer who knows the transaction and is authorised by a board resolution or power of attorney.
The usual mistake is picking whoever's free that day. The managing director is travelling, so the company secretary signs. The company secretary has never seen a single purchase order. Two years later that same person walks into the witness box, because whoever verifies the pleading usually ends up as the main witness, and can't answer basic questions about the account. In Janki Vashdeo Bhojwani v. IndusInd Bank (2005), the Supreme Court held that a power of attorney holder can't depose to matters within the principal's personal knowledge. Apply that logic here. A signatory who's far from the facts becomes the weak link in a case that's otherwise fine.
When Advocate B.K. Singh settles a plaint for a company, he asks the proposed signatory to sit with the final draft and mark each paragraph K, I or L. Knowledge, information or legal advice. If most of the factual paragraphs come back marked I, we've got the wrong person. Changing the signatory at that stage costs almost nothing. Explaining the choice in cross-examination costs a lot more.
Check the authority, not just the person. A board resolution passed after the plaint was signed invites an objection. So does a power of attorney that allows 'filing suits' but says nothing about swearing affidavits or giving evidence. Keep a certified extract of the resolution, dated before the signature, in the court file.
How a wrong statement of truth can hurt you
- Your pleading may not count as evidence. That's Rule 15A(4). The Delhi High Court applied it in M/s AV Industries v. M/s Neo Neon Electrical Pvt. Ltd. (2023). A Division Bench set aside a commercial decree because the plaintiff had never filed a statement of truth at all, so the plaint couldn't be read in evidence. Territorial jurisdiction went against the plaintiff too. Still, the court decided the statement of truth point independently.
- The court can strike the pleading out. Rule 15A(5) lets the court strike out a pleading that has no statement of truth. If that happens to a defendant's written statement after the 120-day period has run, there may be no defence left on record at all.
- Documents you held back can be shut out. You've declared that every relevant document is disclosed. Try to produce one later that was with you all along, and the court can refuse to take it on record unless you show reasonable cause. A false declaration makes that cause much harder to show.
- Costs. Under Section 35 CPC as it applies to commercial disputes, the court weighs conduct when fixing costs, frivolous claims and wasted court time included. If you're caught out on a false declaration, expect the costs order to show it.
- The person who signed can face perjury. A deliberately false statement in an affidavit used in court can amount to giving false evidence under Section 227 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, punishable under Section 229. It's aimed at deliberate lies, not honest mistakes. But the exposure is personal to the signatory. It doesn't stop at the company.
- You lose credibility at trial. Even if none of the above happens, a statement of truth that doesn't match what the witness later says lets the other side call the whole case unreliable. Judges notice.
Can a missing or defective statement of truth be fixed?
Most of the time, yes. Speed matters, though. Move before your opponent has built anything on the defect. Rule 15A(5) says the court 'may' strike out, and that word leaves room. The Calcutta High Court used that room in Harji Engineering Works Pvt. Ltd. v. Hindustan Steelworks Construction Ltd. (2021). A written statement had gone in with no statement of truth. The court wouldn't strike it out, called the lapse curable and gave three weeks to file one. For that it leaned on Vidyawati Gupta v. Bhakti Hari Nayak (2006), where the Supreme Court had said verification rules are procedural and slips in them can be put right.
The Delhi case above is the other side of the coin. The defect there was never cured. The suit went all the way to decree on an unverified plaint. Don't read that as one court being strict and another lenient. A curable defect becomes fatal when nobody bothers to cure it. That's the real lesson.
If you spot the problem, apply straight away to place a proper statement of truth on record, give a short honest explanation, and expect to pay costs. If the pleading's been amended since the first one was sworn, file a fresh statement for the amended version, because Rule 15A(3) requires it unless the court orders otherwise. If it's the other side's pleading that's defective, raise it early and in writing so the objection goes on record. Holding it back for final arguments looks tactical. It may fail anyway, since the court can allow a late cure. Our guide on commercial suits thrown out on technical grounds goes through other defects like this.
Preparing a statement of truth that holds up
We follow this order whether we're acting for the plaintiff or the defendant. It adds a day or two. It takes away most of the risk.
Pick the signatory first
Decide who'll verify before the drafting is done, and make it the person who handled the deal. Get the board resolution, partner's authority or power of attorney in place, dated before the signing. If that person might leave the business soon, talk about it now. The signatory usually turns into the witness.
Gather every relevant document, the bad ones too
Pull out the contract, purchase orders, invoices, ledger, emails, chats and internal notes. Include the ones that hurt, like the email where someone admitted a delay. The declaration covers all relevant documents in your control, not just the useful ones. The other side may have copies already.
Read the final draft line by line
The signatory reads the pleading itself. Not a summary someone else typed up. Mark each paragraph as knowledge, information or legal advice, and correct anything wrong or overstated. If a figure doesn't match the ledger, fix it today rather than explain it later.
Fill in the form, paragraph by paragraph
Put the right paragraph numbers in each category. Count the pages and enter the correct total. Check that the annexures listed match the index, and that every copy is complete and readable.
Sign every page and swear the affidavit
Sign each page of the pleading as the form requires. Then swear the statement of truth before an oath commissioner or notary. Get the date and place right. If the signatory is abroad, plan for attestation in a form the court will accept, and that can take weeks.
Match it with the e-filing set
Make sure what's uploaded on the e-filing portal is the signed and sworn version, with the same page count as the physical set. Mismatches between the two cause a lot of registry objections, and arguments later.
Verify again after any change
If you amend the pleading, or the court lets in an additional document, think about whether you need a fresh or supplementary statement of truth. Keep a dated copy of every version on your file.
Papers to have on the table before anyone signs
Who's allowed to sign
- A certified extract of the board resolution naming the signatory, with its date
- The power of attorney, if the signatory is acting under one
- For a firm, the partnership deed and the Registrar of Firms record
- The signatory's ID proof for the oath commissioner or notary
The facts behind the pleading
- The signed contract, purchase orders, work orders or master service agreement
- Invoices, delivery challans, e-way bills and goods receipt notes
- Ledger extract, balance confirmations, and any credit or debit notes
- Emails, WhatsApp chats and letters, put in date order
Disclosure and proof
- A full list of documents in your power, possession, control or custody
- A note of relevant documents someone else holds, like your bank or transporter
- A certificate under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 for electronic records
- Translations of anything not in English, if the court will need them
Where the statement of truth comes in, and what it costs in time and money
| Stage | Statement of truth needed? | Typical time | Costs to budget (lawyer fees not shown) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 12A pre-institution mediation | No. The mediation application isn't a pleading | Up to 3 months, extendable by 2 months with consent | Fee fixed by the legal services authority; check the current schedule |
| Plaint with documents | Yes, filed with the plaint | 1 to 3 weeks to draft, check and swear | Ad valorem court fee on the claim (check the current schedule), plus small notary or oath commissioner charges |
| Written statement and counter-claim | Yes, one with each | 30 days from service; can be extended with costs up to 120 days, never beyond | Costs ordered for any extension; court fee on a counter-claim |
| Replication and written statement to the counter-claim | Yes | Whatever the court fixes, often around 30 days | Usually no court fee |
| Amended pleading | Yes, a fresh one, unless the court orders otherwise | Once the court allows the amendment | The amending party is often made to pay costs |
| Curing a missing or defective statement | Yes, through an application | Days to a few weeks if you move quickly | Costs, as the court decides |
| Evidence and cross-examination | The pleading gets tested against the evidence affidavit | Several months to more than a year | Local commissioner fees if evidence is recorded before one |
Why the disclosure paragraph catches most people
The paragraph on full disclosure bites hardest. It can be checked against the other side's documents. Suppose your plaint says you have no other documents, and then the defendant produces your own email that you left out. You now have a credibility problem and a legal problem at once.
Before any commercial pleading is sworn, Advocate B.K. Singh asks the client one question. Is there an email, message or note you're hoping the other side never sees? There usually is. Maybe it's a WhatsApp message admitting a lot was short. Maybe an internal email doubting part of the claim. If it's relevant and in your control, it has to be disclosed. Disclose it with an honest explanation in the pleading and it usually does far less damage than when the defendant produces it halfway through your cross-examination.
Disclosure is about relevance. Not about help. Advice from your lawyer is privileged, and Order XI lets a party claim privilege. Ordinary business records don't become privileged because they're awkward. Not sure if something's relevant? Ask before you swear, not after. Our page on disclosure and inspection of documents explains what Order XI wants at each stage. The guide on how to prove emails and WhatsApp chats shows how electronic records get on record.
The statement of truth when you're the defendant
A written statement needs its own statement of truth, declaring the defendant's documents. In the rush to beat the deadline, it's easy to forget. Under Order VIII Rule 1, as amended for commercial suits, the written statement is due within 30 days of service of summons. The court can stretch that only up to 120 days. In SCG Contracts (India) Pvt. Ltd. v. K.S. Chamankar Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (2019), the Supreme Court confirmed nobody gets past that outer limit.
Day 118, no statement of truth: that defence is in worse shape than one filed on day 60 with a proper one. The court may let you fix it later. You've still gifted the plaintiff an argument. Choose the signatory in the first two weeks, alongside the draft. Counter-claims carry their own statement of truth. The plaintiff's replication does as well, and so does its written statement to the counter-claim.
Copy-paste errors are common here. We've seen defendants' forms saying documents were 'annexed with the plaint', lifted straight from a plaintiff's template. That's an open invitation to an objection. Our guide on the 120-day deadline for a written statement shows how to count the days, and the page on how we defend a commercial suit covers the defence as a whole.
Where is the suit filed, and does the court change the rule?
No. Rule 15A is part of the CPC as Section 16 of the Commercial Courts Act amended it, so it binds every commercial court in the country. What you'll notice from one court to the next is the registry's checklist and a few formats. That's about it. A commercial dispute with a specified value of Rs 3 lakh or more is filed where the court has jurisdiction by value and place. Within Delhi, anything up to Rs 2 crore lands before the District Judge (Commercial Court) in one of the district complexes: Saket, Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka, Patiala House. Above Rs 2 crore, it's the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court. There's been a proposal to raise the Delhi district limit. Check where it stands before you file.
On its original side, the Delhi High Court has its own rules running alongside the CPC, and the clerks at its filing counter go through the statement of truth and the affidavit of documents carefully. Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have no such original side. Every commercial suit from Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram or Faridabad begins in the district's designated Commercial Court, however big the claim. Registries there are less uniform. A slip that Delhi would bounce at the counter may sit unnoticed until the defendant raises it months on. Never assume the registry has checked your statement of truth.
Which court gets your dispute, by value and by territory, is set out on our page on which court will hear your case.
Proprietors, firms, companies, startups and foreign parties
A proprietor signs personally. In law, he is the business, so authority is simple. The risk is somewhere else. Plenty of proprietors leave the account to an accountant or a family member, then swear to things they never saw. Mark those paragraphs as information. Where it helps, name the source in the pleading itself.
A partnership firm sues in the firm name, and a partner verifies. If the firm isn't registered, Section 69 of the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 can bar a suit by the firm to enforce a contract against an outsider. No statement of truth fixes that. Check registration before anything else.
Companies and LLPs need a clean trail of authority. Bigger companies often have a standing resolution letting a legal head or regional manager sign. That's fine if that person knows the facts. If not, pick the operational person and authorise him for this particular suit. In startups, the founder tends to sign everything. Founders usually do know the facts. But they also like to slip commercial argument into factual paragraphs, and that's a mistake. Opinions and characterisations belong in the lawyer's submissions, not in what's sworn.
Foreign parties, and directors living abroad, can swear the affidavit before an Indian consular officer, or before a local notary with an apostille where the court accepts that. Check the court's practice before relying on a foreign attestation, and leave time for couriering originals. When time is tight, authorising an officer in India who really knows the facts is often cleaner.
How the statement of truth follows you into the witness box
Most people see the statement of truth as a filing formality. It matters more at trial. In a commercial suit, evidence in chief is usually given by affidavit under Order XVIII Rule 4, and then the witness is cross-examined. The other side's advocate will lay the plaint, the statement of truth and the evidence affidavit side by side and hunt for gaps.
Your statement of truth says paragraph 14 is true to your knowledge. In the witness box you say you heard it from the sales team. You've just told the court part of your sworn statement was inaccurate. That alone won't lose the case. It does let the other side argue the rest is unreliable too. A careful split between knowledge, information and legal advice at the start shuts down that whole line of questions.
Figures are the same story. Rs 42.6 lakh in the plaint, Rs 41.9 lakh in the ledger and Rs 43 lakh in the evidence affidavit. Which one is the defendant going to quote? All three, happily. Sort the figures out before the oath. And if a payment or credit note later changes the amount, say so plainly in an amended pleading or affidavit, verified afresh where needed.
A made-up example: the accounts manager who signed everything
This is an invented case, not a real client. A Karol Bagh dealer in electrical fittings files against a Gurugram building contractor for Rs 36 lakh, spread over 48 invoices. The proprietor is in hospital. His accounts manager signs instead, swearing all 52 paragraphs are within his own knowledge and that nothing relevant has been left out.
Then the written statement arrives. Attached to it is a WhatsApp message from the dealer's own sales executive, agreeing to knock 7 percent off the rate on the last 20 invoices. Nobody had disclosed it. Under cross-examination the accounts manager concedes he never spoke to the contractor. Everything he knew about the supply terms came from the sales team. The discount message? First time he's seeing it.
Nobody here lied on purpose. Still, the distributor now has a credibility problem, a likely costs order and a fight over whether the claim should shrink. A different order of things would have avoided all three. The sales executive or the proprietor verifies the plaint. The discount message goes in with it. The plaint explains that the discount depended on payment within 30 days and so never became due. Then the case is about the discount, which is where the argument belonged all along, and the accounts manager never has to explain a message he hadn't seen.
What to do this week if you're about to sign
- Settle who's signing, and make sure that person actually handled the deal.
- Get the board resolution or authority letter sorted, dated before the signing.
- Read the final pleading itself and mark every paragraph as knowledge, information or legal advice.
- Ask out loud which awkward document exists, then check it's in the list of documents.
- Make the claim amount tally with the ledger, invoices, credit notes and payments.
- Check the page count and the annexure list against the set you're actually filing.
- Confirm that the copy uploaded for e-filing is the signed and sworn one.
- If the pleading has been amended, or will be, plan for a fresh statement of truth.
Get it right before it's too late
Getting a statement of truth right takes an afternoon. Getting it wrong can take years to live down. If your pleading is already filed and something about it bothers you, fix it now, before the other side builds on the defect or the case reaches evidence. If you're about to file, a careful read with the right signatory is the cheapest protection you'll buy in the whole suit. Our page on drafting commercial suits explains how the plaint, the documents and the statement of truth go together as one set.
Want your plaint, written statement or statement of truth checked before anyone signs? Or updates on how courts are applying Order VI Rule 15A? Send your papers to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Is a statement of truth the same as an affidavit?
Yes, it's an affidavit, but one in a fixed form prescribed in the Appendix to the CPC for commercial disputes. A general affidavit doesn't have its specific declarations about personal knowledge, concealment and disclosure of documents. A general supporting affidavit won't do in its place.
Can my lawyer sign the statement of truth for my company?
No. The party signs, or someone the party has authorised who knows the facts. Advocates don't swear to their clients' facts. Your lawyer prepares the form. A director, partner, proprietor or authorised officer signs it.
Does an interim application need a statement of truth?
Rule 15A talks about pleadings, meaning the plaint, written statement, replication and counter-claim. Interim applications usually go with an ordinary affidavit. Some courts and registries do ask for a statement of truth with certain applications, though. Check the current practice where you're filing.
What if I find a relevant document after signing the statement of truth?
Tell your lawyer straight away and apply to put it on record, explaining why it wasn't filed earlier. The court can allow it if there's reasonable cause. The longer you sit on it, the harder that is to show, and the more it looks like you held it back.
Can I be prosecuted for an honest mistake in a statement of truth?
Not for an honest one. Giving false evidence needs a statement the person knows or believes is false, or doesn't believe is true, and an honest error you correct quickly is a very different thing from a deliberate lie told to the court. Fix it fast. That's your best answer to any suggestion of bad faith.
Is a statement of truth needed in a summary suit?
Yes, if the summary suit under Order XXXVII is a commercial dispute. Its plaint needs a statement of truth like any other commercial plaint. The same goes for the defendant's pleadings if leave to defend is granted and a written statement is filed.
Can a director living abroad sign the statement of truth?
Yes. He can swear it before an Indian consular officer, or before a local notary with an apostille where the court accepts that. Leave enough time for attestation and couriering. If the deadline's close, authorising an officer in India who knows the facts may be easier.
What should I do if the other side's statement of truth looks false?
Raise it with your lawyer early. Documents that contradict it can be used in cross-examination and when costs are argued. If the falsehood is deliberate and material, you can ask the court to inquire and make a complaint. Courts use that power carefully, and only in clear cases.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, district and commercial courts in Delhi NCR, and tribunals.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.