Commercial Court Lawyer in Bengaluru: Unpaid Bills, Contract Disputes and Suits in Bengaluru Courts

What we do on Bengaluru commercial disputes

Bengaluru's commercial courts are among the busiest in India. You can see why. The city runs on IT services, startups, engineering suppliers and garment exporters, plus everyone who sells to them. Fights over unpaid invoices, software that was or wasn't delivered, tech park office leases, distribution rights and brand use all end up under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 (the Act). It applies once a commercial dispute is worth Rs 3 lakh or more. And it comes with tight rules on documents, deadlines and mediation.

We're based in Dwarka, New Delhi and Vaishali, Ghaziabad. In Bengaluru we work with associate counsel who appear in the local courts. Strategy, drafting and the document review stay with our Delhi NCR team. It's a set-up that fits a very common case: one side in NCR, the other in Bengaluru, and a dispute that could be filed in either city.

Below we stick to Bengaluru. Which court hears your case, how mediation actually happens there, the Karnataka court fee, and the things that tend to go wrong. If you first need to know whether your matter is a commercial dispute at all, and which court takes it in general, read our page on which commercial court hears your case.

Where a Bengaluru commercial suit gets filed

Start with this. The Karnataka High Court doesn't have ordinary original civil jurisdiction, so it doesn't try suits. In Delhi, a suit above Rs 2 crore goes to the High Court. Not here. Every commercial suit in Bengaluru begins in a district-level commercial court, be the claim Rs 5 lakh or Rs 50 crore. The High Court sees it only on appeal.

For the city, the State Government, in consultation with the High Court, has set up a number of dedicated commercial courts inside the City Civil Court at Bengaluru, each presided over by an Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge. The number has gone up since 2018. Six more dedicated courts were notified for the city at the end of 2019. Commercial suits there carry a Com.O.S. number and get allotted among these courts. Bengaluru Rural district (Devanahalli, Doddaballapur, Hoskote, Nelamangala and the other taluks) has a dedicated commercial court of its own. Allocations change. Look at the current list on the Karnataka judiciary website before you file.

Under Rs 3 lakh, it isn't a commercial suit. It goes to an ordinary civil court and runs under the general Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), without the commercial amendments. A bank recovering Rs 20 lakh or more goes to the Debts Recovery Tribunals at Bengaluru, not the commercial courts. Insolvency petitions against companies go to the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal.

Picking the forum for a Bengaluru business dispute

Sue in Bengaluru or in Delhi?

Section 20 of the CPC lets you file where the defendant lives or carries on business, or where the cause of action arose, wholly or in part. Picture a Gurugram company that supplied software to a Bengaluru client. The contract was signed online, payment was due into a Delhi bank account, and the work itself was delivered and used in Bengaluru. More than one court could hear that. So you have a choice, unless the contract has taken it away.

Which is why you read the jurisdiction clause before anything else. Where two courts both have jurisdiction, the parties can agree that only one will hear disputes, and courts generally hold them to it. Standard contracts written by Bengaluru tech companies tend to name Bengaluru. Ones written by Delhi suppliers tend to name Delhi. Get it wrong and the plaint can be returned under Order VII Rule 10, months down the line.

If the choice is real, follow the money. A Delhi decree against a Bengaluru company has to be sent to Bengaluru for execution under Sections 38 and 39 of the CPC, and that's an extra step. Sue in Bengaluru and the suit and its execution stay in one place. But a Delhi supplier may find hearings and evidence far easier at home, and in Delhi a claim over Rs 2 crore goes to the High Court's Commercial Division. When Advocate B.K. Singh is asked to make this call, his first question is simple. Where will the money actually come from?

The provisions you'll meet in a Bengaluru commercial suit

How Section 12A mediation works in Bengaluru

In Bengaluru, pre-institution mediation is run by the Legal Services Authority for the district concerned, Bengaluru Urban or Bengaluru Rural, under the Commercial Courts (Pre-Institution Mediation and Settlement) Rules, 2018. The Karnataka State Legal Services Authority has a set procedure. It's online. You fill in the prescribed form and pay an application fee. The Authority then writes to the other side and asks whether it will take part. Once mediation actually starts, there's a one-time mediation fee, fixed by claim value and shared between the parties.

No reply, or a flat refusal? You get a non-starter report and can file. If the other side agrees, a mediator is appointed and sessions begin, often over video. That's a real help when one party is sitting in Noida or Gurugram. It's meant to finish in three months, or five if both sides agree to extend, and the time doesn't count for limitation. A settlement signed by both parties and the mediator has the same status as an arbitral award.

Take it seriously. Really. A fair number of Bengaluru disputes settle right here, especially between tech companies that might want to keep doing business together. Walk in with a clean claim statement and the documents that matter. Our page on pre-institution mediation goes into the law.

How a recovery suit moves through a Bengaluru commercial court

A money claim usually goes in this order. Every case keeps its own pace, and nobody can promise you a timeline.

1. Check limitation, then send a notice

   Most money claims have to be filed within three years under the Limitation Act, 1963, counted from the due date or from the last written acknowledgment or part payment. Send a legal notice with the amount, the interest and the documents. Sometimes a clear notice gets you paid. Not often, frankly.

2. Apply for Section 12A mediation

   Apply to the Legal Services Authority with the claim details and pay the application fee. If the other side stays away, collect the non-starter report. If it comes, send someone to the sessions who can actually agree to a settlement.

3. Draft and file the plaint

   Under Order XI, the plaint has to disclose every document in your power and possession, with a statement of truth under Order VI Rule 15A. It's filed in the City Civil Court or the Bengaluru Rural court, with court fee under the Karnataka schedule. You can e-file through the eCourts system.

4. Service and the written statement

   Once served, the defendant has 30 days to file a written statement. With costs, that can go up to 120 days from service. Then the right's gone. In a summary suit, the defendant has to appear within 10 days and then ask for leave to defend.

5. Admission, denial and case management

   Each side admits or denies the other's documents. At a case management hearing under Order XVA, the court frames issues and sets a timetable for evidence and arguments. If the defence looks thin, this is when you apply for summary judgment.

6. Evidence and arguments

   Evidence goes in by affidavit, followed by cross-examination, often before a court commissioner. Commercial suits need written arguments filed before the oral ones.

7. Judgment and execution

   The court has to pronounce judgment within 90 days of the end of arguments. If the defendant still won't pay, you apply for execution under Order XXI in the same court.

Our associate counsel attend the routine Bengaluru dates. Witnesses from Delhi NCR may have to fly down for cross-examination, unless the court lets them give evidence over video.

Time and money for a Bengaluru commercial case

Karnataka court fee, and why your Delhi figure won't work

Court fee in Bengaluru comes from the Karnataka Court-fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1958. On a money suit it's worked out on what you claim, interest up to filing included, under the Karnataka schedule. Its rates and slabs aren't the same as Delhi's, Uttar Pradesh's or Haryana's. So don't reuse a number someone calculated for a Delhi suit. It'll be wrong. Every time.

Injunction and declaration suits are different. There the Karnataka Act's valuation rules decide the fee, and some reliefs are valued on the market value of property or on the amount of business affected. Valuation also feeds into limitation and appeals. If you value low to save fee, expect an objection from the court office or the defendant, and a demand to pay the shortfall.

One more thing. When a suit settles through court-referred mediation or a Lok Adalat, the rules sometimes allow a refund of the court fee you paid. Ask about it before you sign a settlement, and check the rules in force.

Papers to gather for a Bengaluru commercial suit

• The signed contract, MSA, statement of work or purchase orders, and every amendment to them
• Tax invoices, delivery challans, e-way bills, and whatever shows the goods were delivered or the work was accepted
• A ledger or account statement certified by your CA, showing invoices, payments and what's still due
• Emails, WhatsApp chats and portal records where they accepted the work, where you chased them, and anywhere they admitted the debt
• A Section 63 certificate under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 for each electronic record you're relying on
• Your Udyam registration certificate, if you want interest under the MSMED Act, 2006
• The legal notice, the postal or courier receipt, and any reply that came back
• Your Section 12A mediation application, and the non-starter or failure report
• A board resolution or authority letter for whoever signs the plaint
• Certified English translations of anything in Kannada, like lease deeds, khata extracts or letters from local authorities

Things to know about the Bengaluru courts

Plenty of the paper in a Bengaluru dispute is in Kannada. Property records, some lease deeds, municipal and trade licence papers, police complaints. The courts work in English and Kannada, and any document in a language other than the one the proceedings use needs a translation. Get certified translations done early. Late translations mean adjournments, and adjournments in a busy Bengaluru court can mean a next date months away.

The Karnataka judiciary puts statistics on its commercial courts on its website, including pending cases and how long disposal takes. Look at them before deciding between Bengaluru and somewhere else. They're more honest than any lawyer's guess, ours included. Filing goes through the eCourts e-filing system, and you can follow case status, orders and next dates online with the CNR number.

Witnesses are cross-examined in person unless the court allows video. So a Delhi company suing in Bengaluru should plan on at least one trip for whoever signs the evidence affidavit, usually the accounts head or the director who ran the contract. Pick someone who actually knows the deal. The most senior person available isn't always that person.

Bengaluru disputes often cross state lines, and sometimes national ones. If your counterparty is the Indian subsidiary of a foreign company, check who signed the contract and where the assets sit. A decree against an Indian entity with nothing in it isn't worth much.

The disputes we see most from Bengaluru

• IT and software services. Milestones unpaid. Acceptance disputed. Change requests nobody signed. And the old line that the software never worked. Our page on IT and software contract disputes deals with these.
• SaaS and subscriptions. A customer stops paying halfway through the term and suddenly says the service was poor, usually with an auto-renewal clause and a limitation of liability clause in the mix.
• Engineering and manufacturing supplies. Suppliers in Peenya and the Bengaluru Rural belt making parts for bigger manufacturers, and falling out with them over rejections, quality and price escalation.
• Commercial leases. Tech park offices and retail space, with fights over lock-in periods, security deposits and fit-out costs. A lease of property used exclusively for trade is a commercial dispute.
• Distribution and franchise. A distributor or franchisee gets terminated, and then come the arguments about unpaid stock, deposits and who sold in whose territory.
• Brand and code copying. A former employee or a competitor using your trade name, your source code or your client list. An injunction is usually what you're really after.

How the approach changes for different businesses

If you're a supplier with signed purchase orders and invoices the buyer has acknowledged, you may well have a summary suit under Order XXXVII, where the defendant needs the court's leave just to defend. Service firms and IT vendors find summary suits harder, because acceptance of services is so often disputed. For them a regular money recovery suit, with an early application for summary judgment, often fits better.

Lenders who made inter-corporate loans or trade advances to Bengaluru companies should check one thing first. Do the documents show a loan, or an investment? Startups often book money as share application money or convertible notes. And startups are often defendants too, sued by vendors after a funding round falls through. If that's you, look hard at whether the claim was ever accepted in writing.

MSMEs registered under the MSMED Act, 2006 can claim interest at three times the RBI bank rate on late payments under Sections 15 to 17. Or they can refer the dispute to the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council in Karnataka under Section 18. Pick one route on purpose. Don't drift into it. Large companies, in our experience, fight on jurisdiction, limitation and the arbitration clause, and their cases move slower simply because of the volume of paper.

Litigated in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh or Haryana before? Bengaluru will feel different in places. There's no High Court original side for big claims, the court fee schedule is different, mediation goes through a different authority, and appeals go to a different High Court. The Act and the amended CPC are the same everywhere, though. Your pleadings and deadlines carry over.

When you're the one sued in Bengaluru

For a lot of NCR businesses, the first sign of a Bengaluru case is the summons. Write down the date of service straight away. The written statement is due in 30 days, and the outer limit is 120 days from service. After that you lose the right to file it, permanently. Our page on the 120-day written statement deadline explains how strictly courts apply it. In a summary suit it's 10 days to appear and 10 days to ask for leave, and our page on leave to defend sets out what the judge will look for.

Jurisdiction comes first. If the contract names Delhi courts, or no part of the cause of action happened in Bengaluru, your first move may be an application for return of the plaint. Then check whether the plaintiff went through Section 12A mediation. Where no urgent relief was genuinely needed, a suit filed without it can be rejected.

Every document you rely on has to be disclosed with the written statement. So does any counter-claim, say for defective work or late delivery. In the defence files that reach Advocate B.K. Singh, the weak spot is rarely the facts. It's the paper. Usually the business has the emails that prove the defect, but hasn't kept them in a form a court will accept.

Urgent orders, and keeping assets where they are

Sometimes the harm has to stop today. An ex-employee walking off with client data. A terminated distributor still selling under your brand. A debtor quietly emptying its warehouse before the decree comes, so there's nothing left to attach. The commercial court can grant an interim injunction under Order XXXIX of the CPC, and a suit that genuinely contemplates urgent interim relief can skip prior mediation. But courts judge urgency from the plaint itself. Urgency invented just to dodge mediation usually fails.

Trademark and copyright suits in Bengaluru go to the commercial courts, because IP disputes are commercial disputes at any value. Our page on trademark infringement and passing off explains what you'll need to prove.

If a defendant looks set to dispose of assets to defeat a decree, the court can order attachment before judgment under Order XXXVIII Rule 5. You'll need evidence that it's trying to move or sell them. A general fear of not being paid, however reasonable it feels to you, isn't enough. Courts want facts.

Appeals to the Karnataka High Court, and execution in Bengaluru

You appeal a Bengaluru commercial court's judgment to the Commercial Appellate Division of the Karnataka High Court under Section 13(1A) of the Act, within 60 days. The High Court's principal seat is in Bengaluru, in the building across from Vidhana Soudha. There are benches at Dharwad and Kalaburagi for the rest of the state, but Bengaluru appeals are heard at the principal seat. Interim orders on injunctions and attachment can be appealed. Most procedural orders can't, and Section 8 of the Act bars revision. Our page on the commercial appeal covers grounds, stays and deposits.

A decree is executed in Bengaluru under Order XXI of the CPC, by attaching bank accounts, receivables, property or goods. Got a decree from a Delhi, UP or Haryana court and assets in Bengaluru? It's transferred to the Bengaluru court for execution under Sections 38 and 39 of the CPC. Our page on execution of a decree walks through it.

How we work with Bengaluru clients

We handle Bengaluru matters together with associate counsel there, who appear in the local courts and before the Legal Services Authority. Advocate B.K. Singh and the Delhi NCR team go through the documents, settle the strategy, and draft or check the notice, the mediation application, the plaint or the written statement. You deal with one person, and you hear from us after every hearing.

Call or WhatsApp the firm on +91 96259 61599, or come to our offices in Dwarka, New Delhi or Vaishali, Ghaziabad. Most Bengaluru clients send documents by email and meet us on video. We discuss fees at the first meeting and agree them in writing, stage by stage. Court fee, mediation fee, translation and travel are separate, and we'll explain each before it comes up.

If you'd like your contract, invoices and emails looked at before you go to mediation or file in Bengaluru, send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.