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M/S Steps for Wealth Traders & Devesh Kumar Dubey vs. Madhvi Maheshwari

Regular Second Appeal · 2026:DHC:779Decided 3 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
RSA 108/2023CNR: DLHC010228422023
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna

Background

The respondent had sued under Order XXXVII CPC (the summary-suit procedure for recovery based on written contracts and cheques) to recover ₹2,00,000 she said she had advanced to the appellants under a signed Memorandum of Understanding, backed by a cheque. The appellants argued the real transaction was with the respondent's husband, not her, that the cheque was only security, and that the amount had already been repaid in cash, but produced no receipts, account statements, or other evidence for any of this.

Decision Breakdown

Both the trial court and the first appellate court had rejected the appellants' request to defend the suit, finding no genuine triable issue, and decreed the suit with interest. The High Court agreed there was no substantial question of law: the written MoU itself proved the contractual relationship with the respondent regardless of who physically handed over the money (consideration can validly come from someone other than the party named in the contract), and the bald, undocumented claim of repayment could not create a triable defence. The second appeal was dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

In a summary-money suit, a defendant must back up any defence, such as an alleged repayment, with concrete documents like receipts or bank records; a vague, unsupported denial will not be enough to avoid a decree, and a written agreement bearing your signature is very hard to escape by claiming the real deal was with someone else.

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