Commercial Courts Act set to streamline litigation

The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015, received presidential assent on 31 December 2015. It had been in force since 23 October 2015 due to the earlier ordinance on commercial disputes.

The act is aimed at setting up a specialized commercial court at district level and a commercial division in the high court having ordinary original civil jurisdiction to adjudicate “commercial disputes” having a “specified value”, i.e. ₹10 million (US$150,000) or above. The term “commercial disputes” encompasses all types of disputes involving commercial transactions as well as intellectual property rights (IPR).

Section 7 of the act was amended to change “filed” to “filed or pending”. The section now reads: “All suits and applications relating to commercial disputes of a Specified Value filed in a High Court having ordinary original civil jurisdiction shall be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Division of that High Court: Provided that all suits and applications relating to commercial disputes, stipulated by an Act to lie in a court not inferior to a District Court, and filed or pending on the original side of the High Court, shall be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Division of the High Court.”

Subhajit Banerji is a senior associate at Saikrishna & Associates, where Suvarna Mandal is an associate. The views expressed in this article are personal.