Supreme Court of India Upholds HC Order Allowing Grasim Additional Evidence In BIRLA Trademark Row

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court's order permitting Grasim Industries to place additional documents on record in its trademark dispute with Saboo Tor Pvt Ltd over the use of the “BIRLA” mark.

A bench of Justices K.V. Viswanathan and S.V.N. Bhatti held that the high court, in its April 6, 2026 order, had rightly exercised its discretion under Order XLI Rule 27 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which permits additional evidence at the appellate stage in certain circumstances, finding no ground to interfere with the impugned order.

“We are of the opinion on the facts and circumstances of the present case, the discretion under Order 41 Rule 27 of the CPC has been rightly exercised and all parameters required for admitting the documents have been applied correctly. Hence, we find no good ground to interfere with the impugned order.” the court said.

The Court granted Saboo Tor time till May 11, 2026 to file an additional affidavit dealing with the documents brought on record.

The top court also clarified that the High Court had only allowed the documents to be brought on record and had not expressed any final view on their evidentiary value. It said that the relevance and probative worth of the documents would be examined during the hearing of the main appeal.

“Needless to say that the impugned order has only allowed the application filed under order 41 Rule 27 of CPC, in the sense that it has permitted the documents to be brought on record as, and its probative value and relevance are to be decided in the course of hearing in the main appeal.,” the court observed.

Background

The dispute stems from a commercial intellectual property suit filed by Grasim Industries and UltraTech Cement alleging infringement and passing off of the “BIRLA” trademark by Saboo Tor, which markets steel and allied products under marks such as “BIRLA TMT”.

Grasim claimed prior use of the “BIRLA WHITE” mark since 1988 and relied on multiple registrations of “BIRLA” formative marks.

In its April 6, 2026 order, the Bombay High Court had allowed Grasim's application under Order XLI Rule 27 CPC to produce additional documents including scheme-of-arrangement records, trademark registration documents and historical annual reports.

The High Court had observed that the documents were materially relevant and that the appellants had stated they could not trace them earlier despite due diligence.

With the Supreme Court disposing of Saboo Tor's petition, the additional documents permitted by the High Court will remain on record, while their relevance and evidentiary value will be examined during the hearing of the main appeal.