Bill to have commercial courts, special divs in HCs approved

As part of improving the ease of doing business in India, government today approved a bill to set up commercial benches in select high courts to deal with high value business disputes.
Once the proposed bill gets Parliamentary nod, all pending suits and applications relating to commercial disputes involving a claim of Rs one crore and above in the high courts and civil courts will be transferred to the relevant Commercial Division or Commercial Court as the case may be.
Commercial Divisions are to be set up in those high courts which are already exercising ordinary original civil jurisdiction such as Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and Himachal Pradesh high courts.

Commercial Divisions will exercise jurisdiction over all cases and applications relating to commercial disputes. The Commercial Division shall have territorial jurisdiction over such area on which it has original jurisdiction.
According to the Law Ministry proposal, Commercial Courts which will be equivalent to district courts are to be set up in states and UTs where the high courts do not have ordinary original civil jurisdiction, and in states where the high court has original jurisdiction, in respect of those regions to which the original jurisdiction of a high court does not extend.
The proposal cleared by the Cabinet said Commercial Appellate Division will be set up in all the high courts to hear appeal against orders of Commercial Division of high court and orders of commercial courts.

But Commercial Divisions or Commercial Courts will not have jurisdiction in matters relating to commercial dispute, where the jurisdiction of the civil court has been either expressly or impliedly barred under law.

Introduction of the Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts and Commercial Courts Bill, 2015 in the current session of Parliament was part of the budget speech of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Commercial dispute has been defined broadly to mean dispute arising out of ordinary transactions of merchants, bankers, financiers and traders such as those relating to mercantile documents; joint venture and partnership agreements; intellectual property rights; insurance and other areas.

The bill is based on the recommendations of the Law Commission.
"It is much different from the Commercial Division of High Courts Bill, 2009. Here we have also recommended Commercial Appellate Divisions to adjudicate the appeals... These will be manned by trained judges," Law Commission Chairman Justice (Retd) A P Shah had said after submitting recommendations to the government two months ago.
The 2009 bill was referred to the law panel and is still pending in Parliament.