Commercial Courts at Rohini: Which Disputes Go There and How They Run

Section 2(1)(c) of the Act lists what counts. The commonly seen ones at district level are:

• Ordinary transactions of merchants, bankers, financiers and traders, such as sale of goods on credit and recovery of invoice amounts.
• Export and import of goods, carriage of goods, and distribution and licensing agreements.
• Agreements relating to immovable property used exclusively in trade or commerce, such as a lease of a shop or warehouse.
• Partnership agreements, construction and infrastructure contracts, technology and franchising agreements, and insurance.
• Intellectual property disputes, which in Delhi are mostly filed in the High Court where the value crosses its limit.

Two limits trip people up. First, the property must actually be used for trade at the time; in Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises v. K.S. Infraspace (2020) the Supreme Court held that a property merely capable of commercial use is not enough. Second, the specified value must be at least Rs 3 lakh; below that the dispute goes to the ordinary civil court even if it is a business dispute.

Section 12A makes pre-institution mediation compulsory for a suit that does not contemplate urgent interim relief. In Delhi it is conducted by the District Legal Services Authority, which for these districts sits at Rohini. The mediation must be completed within three months, extendable by two months with the parties' consent, and the time spent in it is excluded when computing limitation.

The Supreme Court held in Patil Automation v. Rakheja Engineers (2022) that the requirement is mandatory and a suit filed without it, from 20 August 2022, is liable to be rejected. A plaintiff cannot avoid mediation simply by asking for an interim order: in Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Keerthi (2023) the Court said the commercial court may examine whether the claimed urgency is real. Our article on drafting under section 12A deals with the notice and the mediation application in detail.

Because documents not filed with the plaint can be shut out later, the case has to be assembled before filing: the agreement or purchase orders, invoices and delivery challans, the ledger account with a certificate under section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam for electronic records, correspondence and the demand notice. Interest claims should be worked out under the contract or, for a supplier registered as a micro or small enterprise, under the MSMED Act, which also offers the Facilitation Council route.

Where cheques were given and dishonoured, a criminal complaint can run alongside the suit; see our cheque bounce practice. For disputes under an arbitration clause, the commercial court is still the forum for interim measures under section 9 of the Arbitration Act; see arbitration.