Which Commercial Cases Go to the Commercial Division of Delhi High Court?

The short answer: nature and value decide

A case goes to the Commercial Division of Delhi High Court when two conditions are met. First, it must be a 'commercial dispute' as defined in Section 2(1)(c) of the Commercial Courts Act 2015, which lists categories such as transactions of merchants and bankers, construction contracts, franchise and distribution agreements, intellectual property and sale of goods. Second, its 'specified value' must be at least Rs 3 lakh and, for the High Court, above the Delhi High Court's pecuniary limit of Rs 2 crore. If either condition fails, the case goes somewhere else.

The Delhi High Court is one of the few High Courts in India with ordinary original civil jurisdiction, meaning suits can be filed directly in it as a trial court. Section 4 of the Act requires such High Courts to set up a Commercial Division, and Section 7 says all suits and applications relating to commercial disputes of specified value filed in such a High Court are heard and decided by that Division. So a commercial suit worth Rs 5 crore filed in Delhi is not an ordinary original side suit; it is a commercial suit, with its own stricter procedure.

Commercial disputes worth between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 crore are heard by the District Judge (Commercial) at the district court complexes such as Saket, Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka and Patiala House. Below Rs 3 lakh, a business dispute is an ordinary civil suit before a Civil Judge. Non-commercial suits above Rs 2 crore, such as a partition of family property, go to the original side of the High Court, but not to the Commercial Division.

Our guide on the Delhi High Court's pecuniary jurisdiction explains the Rs 2 crore limit and the pending proposal to raise it. For how we prepare and defend suits in the Division, see our page on commercial suits above Rs 2 crore.

The provisions that decide where a commercial case goes

The commercial dispute definition: what is covered

• Trade and finance. Ordinary transactions of merchants, bankers, financiers and traders, including disputes over mercantile documents such as bills of exchange and letters of credit; mercantile agency and usage.
• Goods and services. Agreements for sale of goods or provision of services; export and import of merchandise or services; carriage of goods.
• Construction and infrastructure. Construction and infrastructure contracts, including tenders.
• Business relationships. Franchising, distribution and licensing agreements; management and consultancy agreements; joint ventures; shareholders' agreements; partnership agreements; subscription and investment agreements in the services industry, including outsourcing and financial services; technology development agreements; agency contracts relating to any of these.
• Property used in trade. Agreements relating to immovable property used exclusively in trade or commerce, such as a lease of a showroom, warehouse or office.
• Intellectual property. Registered and unregistered trademarks, copyright, patents, designs, domain names, geographical indications and semiconductor layouts.
• Specialised sectors. Admiralty and maritime law; aircraft, aircraft engines and helicopters, including sale, leasing and financing; exploitation of oil, gas and other natural resources, including spectrum; insurance and reinsurance.
• Notified disputes. Any other commercial dispute the Central Government notifies.

What is not a commercial dispute

Many money and property disputes between businesspeople are not commercial disputes at all. A friendly loan between relatives or friends is not a transaction of a banker or financier, so a recovery suit for it is an ordinary civil suit, even if the amount is large. Our guide on filing a recovery suit for a friendly loan deals with those cases. Partition of family property, family settlements, wills, matrimonial disputes and tenancy of residential premises are outside the Act.

Property disputes need the most care. The Supreme Court held in Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises v. K.S. Infraspace LLP (2019) that an agreement relating to immovable property is commercial only if the property is actually used, or being used, exclusively in trade or commerce at the time of the agreement. A plot bought to build a factory someday, or a flat bought as an investment, does not qualify. A sale agreement for land is generally not commercial merely because one party is a company or the purpose is business.

Leases of commercial premises are different. A dispute over a lease of a shop, showroom, warehouse or office actually used for business, such as a landlord's suit for possession and arrears against a tenant whose lease has ended, is generally treated in Delhi as a commercial dispute. Premises covered by the Delhi Rent Control Act, let at Rs 3,500 a month or less, follow that Act and go to the Rent Controller.

Some business claims have a forum of their own. Banks and financial institutions recovering Rs 20 lakh or more go to the Debts Recovery Tribunal under the Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act 1993, not to civil courts. Insolvency petitions go to the NCLT, consumer complaints to the consumer commissions, and cheque bounce cases to the criminal courts. Filing these as commercial suits wastes time.

How the specified value of a commercial suit is worked out

The specified value commercial suit test is set by Section 12. For a money claim, it is the amount claimed, including interest computed up to the date of filing. For movable or immovable property, it is the market value of the property as on the date of filing. For other intangible rights, such as a trademark, it is the market value of the right as estimated by the plaintiff. A counterclaim is valued separately, as on the date it is filed.

Interest makes a real difference. Suppose a supplier's unpaid invoices total Rs 1.8 crore, and the contract provides 18 per cent interest on late payment. Two years of interest takes the claim well past Rs 2 crore, which moves the suit from the district commercial court to the Commercial Division of Delhi High Court. Claiming interest you cannot justify, simply to reach the High Court, is risky, because the defendant can object and the plaint may be returned.

When Advocate B.K. Singh is asked which court a commercial claim belongs in, he first prepares an interest calculation to the expected filing date, invoice by invoice, with the contractual rate or a reasonable rate if the contract is silent. If the total lands close to Rs 2 crore, he advises filing only after rechecking the figure on the actual filing date, because a plaint filed a week early in the wrong court can lose months to a return under Order VII Rule 10 CPC.

Valuation also fixes the court fee, which in Delhi is largely ad valorem on money claims. Check the current court fee schedule before filing. A 2026 amendment to the Delhi court fee law allows a refund of court fee where the parties settle; check its details and conditions.

Which Delhi forum hears what

Section 12A: mediation before you file

Before filing a commercial suit that does not seek urgent interim relief, the plaintiff must apply for pre-institution mediation under Section 12A. In Delhi, the application goes to the legal services authority designated under the 2018 Rules, which issues notice to the other side. Mediation is to be completed within three months, extendable by two months with consent. The time spent is excluded from limitation, and a settlement reached has the status of an arbitral award on agreed terms.

The Supreme Court held in Patil Automation v. Rakheja Engineers (2022) that Section 12A is mandatory, and that a suit filed without it, where no urgent relief is sought, must be rejected. That ruling applied to suits filed from 20 August 2022. In Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Keerthi (2023), the Court added that a plaintiff cannot avoid mediation simply by adding a prayer for an injunction; the court looks at whether the need for urgent relief is genuine.

In practice, a supplier chasing unpaid invoices usually has to mediate first. A company seeking to stop a former partner from using its trademark, or a landlord seeking to prevent a tenant from removing fixtures, may genuinely need urgent relief and can file directly with an application explaining why. If the other side does not turn up for mediation, the authority issues a non-starter report and you file the suit with it.

Mediation is not just a formality. A meaningful number of payment disputes settle at this stage, especially where the defendant knows a High Court suit with costs is coming.

From dispute to decree in the Commercial Division of Delhi High Court

A typical commercial suit in the Division moves through these stages. Joint Registrars handle many of the procedural steps.

1. Check nature, value and limitation

   Confirm that the dispute falls within Section 2(1)(c), compute the specified value with interest to the filing date, and check limitation, usually three years for money claims. Decide whether urgent relief is needed.

2. Pre-institution mediation or urgent application

   Apply for Section 12A mediation, or prepare an application explaining the urgency if you will seek an injunction or attachment at the first hearing.

3. Draft the plaint with full disclosure

   The plaint must be verified by a statement of truth and filed with all documents in your power and possession, with a list of documents, as Order XI requires. Documents not filed with the plaint cannot easily be relied on later.

4. File, cure objections and get the first listing

   File online through the Delhi High Court e-filing system, pay court fee, and cure registry objections. The suit is listed before the Commercial Division, which issues summons and decides any urgent application.

5. Written statement within 120 days

   The defendant must file its written statement within 30 days of service, extendable to 120 days with costs. After 120 days the right to file it is lost. The plaintiff files a replication.

6. Admission and denial, case management

   Each side admits or denies the other's documents on affidavit before the Joint Registrar. The court holds a case management hearing under Order XV-A, frames issues and fixes a timetable for evidence and arguments.

7. Summary judgment, evidence and judgment

   If the defence has no real prospect, the plaintiff may seek summary judgment under Order XIII-A. Otherwise evidence is led by affidavit, often recorded before a local commissioner, and the court hears arguments and delivers judgment.

Suits based on written contracts, bills or promissory notes may instead be filed as summary suits under Order 37, a faster route explained in our guide on summary suits in Delhi High Court.

How the Commercial Division works day to day

The Commercial Division sits on the original side of the Delhi High Court. The Delhi High Court (Original Side) Rules 2018 apply, but where they conflict with the Code of Civil Procedure as amended by the Commercial Courts Act, the amended Code prevails. Our guide on the original side of the Delhi High Court explains the Joint Registrar stage and the listing system.

The rules on time are strict and are applied. In SCG Contracts India v. K.S. Chamankar Infrastructure (2019) the Supreme Court held that a written statement in a commercial suit cannot be taken on record after 120 days from service. Courts in Delhi have applied this firmly. Admission and denial of documents must be done properly, with reasons for denial, and a party who denies a document unreasonably can be made to pay costs.

In a commercial suit Advocate B.K. Singh has the date of service of summons recorded on the file the day the client walks in, along with day 30 and day 120 marked in red. Clients often arrive in week ten thinking there is plenty of time, and by then the documents are still with the accounts team in another city. Starting the written statement in week one is the only safe way to work.

Costs follow the event more readily than in ordinary suits. Section 35 of the Code, as amended for commercial disputes, lets the court award realistic costs, and the Delhi High Court does award them, particularly against a party that delayed or took frivolous points. For a business, this can change the arithmetic of whether to fight or settle.

Typical time and cost of a commercial suit in Delhi

Arbitration and IP matters in the Commercial Division

Arbitration petitions are a large share of the Division's work. Under Section 10 of the Act, all applications and appeals from an international commercial arbitration that would lie to the Delhi High Court go to the Commercial Division whatever their value. For domestic arbitrations seated in Delhi, the aggregate of the claim and counterclaim decides the forum: above Rs 2 crore, the Commercial Division; below, the District Judge (Commercial). This covers petitions for interim measures, challenges to awards and enforcement. Our guide on challenging an arbitral award under Section 34 explains one of the most common of these petitions.

Intellectual property suits are commercial disputes by definition. In the Delhi High Court they are heard in the Intellectual Property Division under the IPD Rules 2022, which operate together with the commercial court procedure. Smaller IP suits go to the district commercial courts. Our guide on the Intellectual Property Division covers how that bench works.

For more detail on commercial court practice at district level and across the NCR, our sister site on commercial court cases covers district commercial courts in depth.

Before filing in the Commercial Division, have these ready

• The contract, purchase orders, work orders or lease deed, with all amendments and correspondence.
• Invoices, delivery challans, e-way bills and ledger statements, reconciled with the other side's account if possible.
• An interest calculation to the filing date, invoice by invoice, showing the specified value.
• The legal notice and reply, and any acknowledgement of debt that extends limitation.
• The Section 12A mediation non-starter or failure report, or a clear note on why urgent relief is needed.
• Board resolution or authority letter for the person signing the plaint, and the statement of truth.
• GST returns or bank statements showing the transactions, and any MSME registration certificate.
• A list of every document in your power and possession, including those that hurt your case, for Order XI disclosure.

Forum mistakes that cost months

• Filing a commercial dispute as an ordinary suit. A suit that should have gone to the Commercial Division but was filed on the ordinary original side, or the reverse, may be transferred or returned, and the timelines that apply change.
• Getting the value wrong. Forgetting interest, or inflating it, can put the suit in the wrong court. The defendant will check.
• Skipping mediation without real urgency. After Patil Automation and Yamini Manohar, a token injunction prayer will not save a plaint.
• Treating a property sale dispute as commercial. Unless the property is actually used exclusively in trade, it is usually not.
• Holding back documents. Under Order XI, documents not disclosed with the plaint or written statement can be shut out later.
• Missing the 120-day written statement deadline. There is no extension beyond it in a commercial suit.

Appeals from the Commercial Division

Appeals from a judgment or an appealable order of the Commercial Division go to the Commercial Appellate Division of the Delhi High Court, a Division Bench, under Section 13 of the Act. The limit is 60 days. Only orders listed in Order 43 of the Code and those specifically made appealable can be appealed, and the Supreme Court held in Kandla Export Corporation v. OCI Corporation (2018) that no Letters Patent appeal lies outside Section 13. Appeals from district commercial courts at District Judge level also come to the Commercial Appellate Division.

Our guide on commercial appeals under Section 13 explains which orders can be appealed and how delay is treated. From the Commercial Appellate Division, the remaining route is a special leave petition to the Supreme Court.

What to do this week

Put the contract, invoices and ledger in one folder. Ask your accounts team for an interest calculation to a filing date about four months away. Check whether the dispute falls within the commercial dispute definition, and whether a property element is used exclusively in trade. Check limitation, and look for any acknowledgement of debt that extends it.

If you have been sued, write down the date of service and count 30 and 120 days from it. Collect every document you have, because Order XI expects full disclosure with the written statement. Our commercial suits page explains how we handle suits in the Commercial Division. For advice on your papers or for updates on commercial court law, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.