Is mediation period part of limitation time for filing written statement? Delhi High Court answers

The Delhi High Court in a recent judgment held that the time spent by the parties on mediation is excluded in counting the period of limitation for filing written statement [Bharat Singh Vs. Karan Singh and Others]..The Court passed the ruling while deciding an appeal in a partition suit against an order passed by Joint Registrar of the High Court who had refused to accept the written statement.Under the Delhi High Court (Original Side) Rules, 2018, the maximum period for filing the written statement is 120 days from the date of service of the plaint. The Court observed that the short question before it was whether the clock for calculating the time period to file written statement by opposing party would stop running when the parties are in mediation..Justice Subramonium Prasad accepted the written statement and held that the mediation period shall be excluded while counting the period of limitation for filing the written statement.“Since this Court has excluded the time spent in Mediation and since the written statement has been filed within the period of maximum 120 days excluding the period spent in Mediation, this Court is inclined to accept the written statement filed by Defendants No.1 and 4, subject to the payment of costs of Rs.5,000/- to be deposited with Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund,” the Court held..The Court observed that if the party is forced to file a written statement while the parties are attempting mediation, it would be detrimental to the parties seeking settlement of the matter.“In the opinion of this Court, if parties are attempting to mediate and settle the dispute and are forced to file written statements then this will hamper the entire mediation process and would be detrimental to the spirit of Mediation which ensures a just solution acceptable to all the parties to the dispute thereby achieving a win-win situation,” the Court stated..The judge also opined that it would prevent the parties from freely communicating to each other, which is required for settling the dispute out of court. “In the opinion of this Court, forcing the parties to file a written statement or to complete the pleadings during the process of mediation will prevent the parties in freely communicating with each other which they have not been able to since the dispute started,” the Court stated.Accordingly, it accepted the filing of the written statement and listed the matter before the Joint Registrar on March 3..Advocates Abhimanyu Mahajan, Abhimanyu Walia, Anubha Goyal, Tanishq Sirohi and Ishani Pillai appeared for the petitioner.Advocates Utsav Trivedi, Himanshu Sachdeva, Anudatt Dubey, Chand Chopra, Neha Bhupathiraju, Saurav Agarwal, Sunanda Tulsyan, Anshuman Choudhary and Akhil Sachar appeared for the defendants. [Read Order]