WEEKLY EXERCISE

March 2023

Exercises on Drafting and filing a commercial suit

for a money recovery matter

Week Duration: 29/03/2023 to 05/04/2023

Weekly Exercise
Drafting and filing a commercial suit for a money recovery
matter

Learning Objectives:

● To learn how to draft a plaint in a commercial dispute;

● To learn drafting of written statement thereto

Reference Material:

Module name Module details

Module 27 : Commercial ● Commercial Courts Act, 2015

Courts Act
● Sample-Plaint Commercial Suit

● Template-Written Statement Commercial Suit

Exercise 1:

Facts of the case

1. A music album named ‘Yariyaan’ was proposed to be launched by singer,

lyricist, and music composer Tom Nigam (“Defendant”). For the purpose of
arranging campaigns for advertising and publicity, Defendant contracted with
M/s Yashraj Broadcasting Ltd. (“Plaintiff”). The Plaintiff was responsible for
preparing all the material for advertising, and publicity including artwork,
photography, drawing, engraving, advertising writing, preparation of video
films for T.V. advertisements and video magazines.

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Weekly Exercise
Drafting and filing a commercial suit for a money recovery
matter

2. A formal work order dated 24.03.2022 was sent to Plaintiff. The extracts of the
work order are as follows:

a. “Based on the conversation between Mr Jerry Johar (representative of M/s

Yashraj Broadcasting Ltd.) and Mr Tom Nigam, your agency M/s Yashraj
Broadcasting Ltd. has been chosen to carry out the promotion,
advertisement and publicity campaign of ‘Yariyaan’ for television
advertisements, banners, posters, sound and light shows and radio
advertisements. As agreed by you, 4% commission will be charged by us
on the above-integrated services.

b. Further, your agency is also authorised to act on our behalf in negotiating

and closing the Agreement for celebrity endorsement for the ‘Yariyaan’
advertising campaign in consultation with Mr Tom Nigam.

c. This order is subject to review by Mr Tom Nigam based on your

performance which will be assessed on a regular basis. Further, Mr Tom
Nigam also reserves the right to assign work to other agencies, if he
deems you unfit for the advertisement campaign.”

3. The total cost indicated therein for television advertisements, banners, posters,
sound and light shows and radio advertisements summed up to Rs. 1,00,00,000
(Rupees One Crore only) plus service tax (if applicable on the date of billing).
Hence, a communication dated 30.03.2022 was sent to Plaintiff to commence
with the advertisement and publicity campaign.

4. On 01.04.2022, the campaign for advertisement and publicity commenced.

Subsequently, Plaintiff submitted invoices for the outdoor campaigning
(comprising expenses incurred on posters, banners and events) worth Rs.
60,00,000 (Rupees Sixty Lakhs only). So far, an amount of Rs. 20,00,000
(Rupees Twenty Lakhs only) out of Rs. 60,00,000 has been paid to Plaintiff by

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Weekly Exercise
Drafting and filing a commercial suit for a money recovery
matter

Defendant. However, a payment of Rs. 40,00,000 (Rupees Forty Lakhs only)

remains outstanding and is disputed by Defendant.

5. For supporting its claim of Rs. 40,00,000, Plaintiff has provided the following
details as proof of expenses:

a. Pictures of events.

b. Few bills by local businessmen, prepared on a plain sheet of paper.

c. The daily income and expenditure statements of Plaintiff (Assume that

Defendant’s contract was the only one they were engaged in at that time).

6. Objections were made by Defendant and the invoices were not cleared even
after Plaintiff had provided them with the above proofs. Hence, no amount further
than 20,00,000 Rupees was cleared by Defendant.

You have been approached by Plaintiff. to take legal recourse against Defendant
who has failed to pay the amounts despite being due. You are required to file a suit
against Defendant. Draft a Plaint for the same. [10 marks]

[Hint: Refer to the sample Plaint-Commercial Suit.]

Exercise 2:

Keeping the above facts in mind and assuming that you’ve been approached by
Defendant, draft a written statement. [10 marks]

[Hints: You can draft the written statement by contending on the following points:

i. There were irregularities in the work done by Plaintiff (mention in detail);

ii. Plaintiff started the campaign prior to an agreement being executed and
prior to being provided with deliverable specifications, rules,

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Weekly Exercise
Drafting and filing a commercial suit for a money recovery
matter

responsibilities, assignments and mechanisms in place; this led to a lot of

expenses that had to be ultimately paid by Defendant;

iii. No verification of the publicity and advertisement was done at the time of
campaigning;

iv. The total area of posters and banners cannot be ascertained by the
images shared.

v. Posters and banners at different locations have different brackets of

expenditure. The locations of the banners and posters cannot be
ascertained from the photographs.

Refer to the sample Sample-_Written_Statement_Commercial_Suit]

Now get a chance to be creative. Try out our Linkedin exercise and expand
your professional reach!

You are required to review the judgement as pronounced by the Supreme Court in
M/s SCG Contracts India Pvt. Ltd. V/s. K.S. Chamankar Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. &
Ors. (Civil Appeal No. 1638 of 2019 arising out of S.L.P (C) No. 103/2019) as to the
time limit to file a written statement in a commercial suit and whether such time limit
can be extended. Share it as a LinkedIn post and do not forget to tag LawSikho,
Ramanuj Mukherjee, Abhyuday Agarwal, Komal Shah, Yash Vijayvargiya, Abhipsa
Anamika and Sneha Yadav for a wider reach.

NOTE:

You can find the class schedule link : Class Schedule

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Drafting and filing a commercial suit for a money recovery
matter

Please reach out to your course anchor, Sneha Yadav, for your course-related
concerns at sneha.yadav@lawsikho.in . You can also book a calendly session
through this link (https://calendly.com/sneha-yadav-10/15min).

For assignment related queries you can reach out to your evaluator, Abhishek
Charan at abhishek.c@lawsikho.in . You can also book a calendly session through
this link http://calendy.com/abhishek-c95

To connect with the mentorship team, drop a mail to mentorships@lawsikho.in.

For Support/ Technical/ Evaluation concerns, write to support@lawsikho.in with a

screenshot.

Do not message the anchors personally unless you require help in coping with the
course or have feedback on experts or content.

To get started with your freelance journey or any related support, reach to
nlfreelancing@lawsikho.in

Here are the escalation points if you are dissatisfied with our services, especially
content and classes.

● Sneha Yadav, Course Anchor (https://calendly.com/sneha-yadav-10/15min)

● Yash Vijayvargiya, Content Head (yash@lawsikho.in,

https://calendly.com/yashls/escalations-and-feedback)

● Abhyuday Agarwal (abhyuday@lawsikho.in)

● Ramanuj Mukherjee (ramanuj@ipleaders.in)

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Weekly Exercise
Drafting and filing a commercial suit for a money recovery
matter

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