A court must assess relevance before rejecting additional documents solely as belated.

The petitioners challenged the Commercial Court’s order dated 31 August 2024 dismissing their application under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) to produce additional documents in a commercial suit.

The suit was filed on 1 December 2021; the application, filed on 20 June 2024, sought to produce documents including two from 2016–2017 and others dated after the suit was filed.

The petitioners said the documents had not been in their possession when the suit was filed and were needed after reviewing the written statement.

The respondents opposed production as belated and noted that trial had commenced.

The High Court had stayed proceedings in the suit pending the petition.

The application was brought under Section 151 CPC, which the petitioners invoked to seek permission to place additional documents on record.

The High Court did not cite or apply any precedent, or set out a specific legal test for permitting additional documents.

It held that the Commercial Court should examine the documents’ relevance to adjudicating the issues in the suit and pass a reasoned order in accordance with law.

The High Court observed that the Commercial Court had rejected the application on the basis of delay but had not examined whether the documents were relevant to the dispute.

Given the petitioners’ explanation that some documents post-dated the suit and that the documents were sought after reviewing the written statement, the High Court set aside the dismissal and left the merits of producing the documents for the Commercial Court to determine after hearing both parties.

The Commercial Court was directed to examine the documents sought to be produced and pass a reasoned, speaking order in accordance with law, after allowing both parties to make submissions.

The High Court did not itself decide whether the documents should be admitted.