Commercial Court Lawyer for Business Disputes of Rs 3 Lakh and Above

What a Commercial Court is, without the jargon

A Commercial Court is a civil court, set up under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, that hears business disputes worth Rs 3 lakh or more. It uses the same Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (the CPC) as any civil court. But the CPC has been changed for these cases so that they actually move. You file your documents at the start. The defendant gets a fixed outer deadline to answer. And the judge holds a case management hearing and sets a timetable for the trial. Parliament set these courts up because business cases were sitting in the general civil list for a decade and longer.

What that means for you is less room to stall, on either side. Good news if you're owed money. It also means you can't turn up with half your papers and bring the rest later. And if you're the one being sued, missing a single date can cost you your whole defence. Most of this page is about making those rules work for you, and not getting caught out by them.

What counts as a commercial dispute, and the Rs 3 lakh rule

When the dispute belongs somewhere else

Not every business fight goes to a Commercial Court. Is there an arbitration clause in your contract? Then the other side can apply under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 to have the dispute sent to arbitration, and courts usually agree. You'd then get interim protection through a Section 9 petition and have an arbitrator appointed under Section 11. Our sister site deals with those arbitration petitions. Where the arbitration is about a commercial dispute, the Commercial Court still hears those petitions. The arbitrator decides the actual dispute, though.

Company insolvency, oppression and mismanagement, and other company law fights go to the National Company Law Tribunal. We cover those on ncltlawyers.in. Banks and financial institutions recovering Rs 20 lakh or more generally go to the Debts Recovery Tribunal, not a civil court. A bounced cheque gives you a criminal complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. That runs on its own track, quite apart from any civil suit for the same money.

Under Rs 3 lakh, you still go to court. Just the ordinary civil court, not a Commercial Court. If you're a registered micro or small enterprise chasing a buyer for late payment, you also have the MSME Facilitation Council under Section 18 of the MSMED Act, 2006. It can be quicker, and the interest is higher. Pick the wrong forum and you'll lose months. That's why we settle this question before any notice goes out.

Which court, and where: value and territory

Two different questions decide your court. What is the claim worth, and which city or district has territorial jurisdiction? Get either one wrong and the plaint comes back to you for filing in the proper court, usually after a few hearings have already gone by.

In Delhi, commercial suits up to Rs 2 crore go to the District Judge (Commercial Court) at the district court complexes at Tis Hazari, Saket, Patiala House, Karkardooma, Rohini and Dwarka, each looking after its own districts. Above Rs 2 crore, the suit goes to the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court on its original side. Since late 2025 there's been a proposal to raise the district court limit. Check where it stands before you value the suit. Our page on Delhi district commercial courts explains how filing and listing work in those complexes.

Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are different. Their High Courts don't have ordinary original civil jurisdiction. So a commercial suit of Rs 3 lakh or more, whatever its size, is filed before the court designated as the Commercial Court for that district, at District Judge level. For most of the businesses that come to us, that's Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar (the district court at Surajpur, which serves Noida and Greater Noida), Gurugram or Faridabad. UP appeals go to the Commercial Appellate Division of the Allahabad High Court. Haryana's go to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Territory comes from Section 20 of the CPC. You can sue where the defendant lives or does business, or where the cause of action arose, fully or in part. In a supply dispute, part of it may arise where the order was accepted, where the goods were delivered, or where payment was due. A Noida supplier selling to a Gurugram buyer may genuinely get to choose. If the contract picks one city's courts, that clause is usually enforced, provided those courts would have had jurisdiction anyway. Online contracts are harder. So are projects spread over several cities, where every site has its own paperwork. Our page on which court will hear your case takes those on.

Who hears your suit in Delhi NCR

How a commercial suit moves, one stage at a time

This is the usual path if you're the one bringing the claim. If you're the defendant, you meet the same stages from the other side.

1. Check the papers, and the clock

   Most money and contract claims have to be filed within three years under the Limitation Act, 1963. The count starts when payment fell due or the breach happened. A signed acknowledgment of the debt, or a part payment, made before those three years run out gives you a fresh three years. We also look at the value, the right court, any arbitration clause, and whether the other side still has the money to pay.

2. Send a legal notice

   Against a private party, you don't have to send one. We'd still send one. It fixes the amount, demands interest and often draws the first serious reply. Make sure it matches the claim you'll file later, because the defendant will put the two side by side. Our money recovery suit page shows how the notice feeds into the claim.

3. Go through Section 12A mediation

   Unless you need urgent interim relief, you apply to the Legal Services Authority for pre-institution mediation before you file. They call the other side. If it doesn't show up, you get a non-starter report and can file. If it does, mediation can run up to three months, and two more if both sides agree. Forms and fees are on our pre-institution mediation page.

4. Draft and file the plaint

   The plaint needs a statement of truth under Order VI Rule 15A. Under Order XI as amended, it goes in with every document in your power and possession, including the ones that hurt you. Court fee is paid on the claim value. The Delhi district courts and the Delhi High Court both take e-filing. What belongs in the paper book is on our page on drafting a commercial suit.

5. Summons and the written statement

   Once summons issues, the defendant has 30 days to file its written statement. The court can stretch that, with costs, to 120 days from service. Not a day more. After 120 days the right is simply gone. Any counter-claim usually goes in alongside the written statement.

6. Disclosure, inspection, admission and denial

   Each side inspects the other's documents, then files an affidavit admitting or denying each one, with a reason for every denial. A bare denial with no reason can be treated as an admission. It's a quiet stage. It narrows the fight a lot, though, and it often shows who's holding the better paper.

7. Case management hearing

   Under Order XVA the court holds a case management hearing. It frames the issues, decides which witnesses are needed and fixes dates for evidence and arguments. If the other side has no real prospect of success, this is when you ask for summary judgment under Order XIIIA.

8. Evidence, arguments and judgment

   Witnesses give evidence by affidavit and are then cross-examined, often before a local commissioner so the court's own time isn't used up. Written arguments go in before oral ones. The court is meant to pronounce judgment within 90 days of arguments closing. The loser normally pays the winner's costs.

9. Appeal or execution

   Whoever loses has 60 days to appeal under Section 13. If there's no appeal, or no stay, the decree holder files for execution against bank accounts, property or receivables. Winning on paper is one job. Getting paid is another.

Time and costs at each stage (lawyer's fees not included)

Three rules that decide most commercial cases

The 120-day limit for the written statement is the one everyone has heard of. It really is strict. In SCG Contracts India v. K.S. Chamankar Infrastructure (2019), the Supreme Court held that a Commercial Court has no power to take a written statement on record after 120 days from service of summons. If you've been sued, the count runs from the date you were served. Not the date someone in your office finally opened the envelope.

Documents come next, and they matter just as much. Order XI as amended makes the plaintiff file every document in its power, possession, control or custody along with the plaint, with a sworn declaration that nothing else is being held back. Leave something out and you can't rely on it later without the court's leave. You'll get leave only if you had reasonable cause for the omission. When Advocate B.K. Singh goes through a file before filing, most of his time goes on one question: what do the client's own records say against the claim? The other side will dig those records up anyway.

Then costs. Section 35 of the CPC, as substituted for commercial disputes, makes it the general rule that the loser pays the winner's costs. The court can also look at how each side behaved (a frivolous claim, a false defence, needless adjournments, turning down a fair settlement offer). Full costs aren't always given. The risk is real all the same. A weak defence gets expensive to keep alive.

Urgent orders while the suit is going on

• Temporary injunction. Under Order XXXIX of the CPC the court can stop the other side from using your brand, selling the disputed goods, ending a contract in breach, or wrongly invoking a guarantee. You'll need a strong case, real urgency, and harm that money can't put right. See our page on urgent injunctions.
• Attachment before judgment. If the defendant is about to sell off assets or slip out of the court's reach to defeat a decree, Order XXXVIII Rule 5 lets the court order it to give security, or attach its property. Courts see this as an exceptional order. They want hard evidence, not a hunch. Our page on freezing assets before judgment shows what that evidence looks like.
• Receiver. Order XL lets the court appoint a receiver to hold disputed goods, stock or property, so nobody walks off with it while the case runs.
• Skipping mediation for urgency. If a suit genuinely needs urgent interim relief, it can be filed without Section 12A mediation. In Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Keerthi (2023) the Supreme Court said the court will read the plaint and documents to see if the urgency is real. A token injunction prayer added just to dodge mediation won't work. The plaint can be rejected.
• Caveat, if you're the defendant. Think the other side will run to court for an injunction? File a caveat under Section 148A of the CPC, and you must be heard before any order is passed. It lasts 90 days, and you can renew it.

If you've been sued in a Commercial Court

First, write down the date the summons was served on you or your company. Every deadline runs from that day. It may have been taken in at your registered office, by a branch manager, or by a clerk in accounts. Ask around before you assume there's time.

In a commercial suit, a written statement isn't a general denial. You have to deal with each allegation specifically, and whatever you don't specifically deny is taken as admitted. Give your own version. File every document you rely on. Admit or deny the plaintiff's documents, with reasons. If you have a claim of your own against the plaintiff (defective goods, delay damages, credit notes it never honoured), put it in as a counter-claim at the same time. Our page on how to defend a commercial suit lays out the order of work.

Look at a few other things too. Was the suit filed without Section 12A mediation when there was no urgency? Does the court have territorial and money jurisdiction? Is the claim time-barred? Any of these can finish the suit early, through an application under Order VII Rule 11 of the CPC to reject the plaint. And if it's a summary suit, the clock is much shorter. You get ten days to enter appearance and ten days to ask for leave to defend.

How it plays out for different businesses

• Suppliers, manufacturers and traders. Usually it's unpaid invoices. Purchase orders, delivery challans with the buyer's receiving stamp, GST invoices and a running ledger make strong evidence. Has the buyer signed a ledger confirmation, or is the debt on a cheque or a written contract? Then a summary suit could be faster than a regular one.
• Service firms, IT companies and consultants. The argument tends to be about whether the work was accepted. Emails approving deliverables, sign-off sheets, timesheets and usage logs often count for more than the contract itself. Electronic records need a certificate under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.
• Lenders and investors. Inter-corporate deposits, trade advances and short-term business loans are commercial disputes. The core papers are the loan document, the board resolution, the bank transfer records and anything in which the borrower admits the balance.
• Startups. Founders often have very little paperwork and a long WhatsApp history. That can still prove a contract. But it has to be collected, printed with dates and certified properly. Watch your cash flow as well, because on a small claim a long suit can cost more than it brings back.
• MSMEs. If you're a registered micro or small supplier, you can claim interest on late payments at three times the bank rate notified by the Reserve Bank, and you can go to the Facilitation Council instead of filing a suit. Which way to go depends on the buyer, the amount, and how fast you need an order you can enforce.
• Large companies. The trouble is usually volume and internal approvals. If the defence or counter-claim needs sign-off from three departments, the 120-day limit slips past very easily. Set internal deadlines the day summons arrives.
• Landlords and tenants of commercial space. Unpaid rent, security deposit refunds and lock-in fights over shops, offices and warehouses used for business are commercial disputes once the value crosses Rs 3 lakh.

Papers to bring to the first meeting

Mistakes we see sink good claims

• Waiting on the debtor's promises. A promise on the phone doesn't stretch limitation by a day. Only a written, signed acknowledgment, or a part payment before the deadline, does that.
• Claiming more than your papers prove. A puffed-up claim invites a detailed defence and a costs order. A clean figure you can prove moves faster than a big, shaky one.
• Skipping mediation when there's no real urgency. Since Patil Automation v. Rakheja Engineers (2022), plaints filed without Section 12A mediation after 20 August 2022 have been rejected under Order VII Rule 11. Mediation time is excluded from limitation anyway, so there's little reason to skip it.
• Holding documents back. If it wasn't filed with the plaint, it can be shut out later. Disclose everything, the awkward stuff included.
• Suing the wrong entity. Group companies, proprietorships and brand names get muddled all the time. Sue the legal person that actually contracted with you, and check its exact name on the registry.
• Forgetting the end game. In the execution files that come to Advocate B.K. Singh, the usual problem is that nobody checked at the start what the debtor owned or where it banked. Find out before you file. Don't leave it until after the decree.

When we'd tell you not to sue

Sometimes the honest advice is don't. If the claim is only just over Rs 3 lakh and the facts are disputed, a contested suit can cost you more time and money than you'll ever get back. A well-drafted notice followed by a firm settlement offer might do better. So might an MSME Facilitation Council reference, if you qualify.

If the debtor is a company that has plainly stopped trading, a decree may be hard to enforce. An insolvency route, or a negotiated assignment of the receivables, could be worth weighing up. If your contract sends disputes to arbitration, a suit just invites an application to refer the matter, and you lose months. And if you still do business with the other side and the amount is small, a straight commercial conversation (recorded in writing) may save both the relationship and the money.

None of that is a reason to let limitation run out while you think. Diary the three-year date. Decide early. Keep the option to sue open.

After judgment: appeal and execution

A party unhappy with the judgment has 60 days under Section 13 to appeal. Delhi appeals go to the Commercial Appellate Division of the Delhi High Court. Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida appeals go to the Allahabad High Court, and Gurugram and Faridabad appeals to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. An appeal doesn't stop execution on its own. To get a stay, the appellant usually has to deposit the decretal amount, or a big part of it.

Execution happens under Order XXI of the CPC. The decree holder can ask the court to attach bank accounts, receivables, movable goods and immovable property, and to examine the debtor on oath about what it owns. In Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021) the Supreme Court directed that execution proceedings should ordinarily be decided within six months of filing. Courts don't always manage it. Still, the direction helps when a debtor files one objection after another. Our page on the execution of a decree goes through the tools in detail.

From the High Court, the next stop is the Supreme Court, by special leave petition under Article 136 of the Constitution, ordinarily within 90 days of the High Court's judgment. Special leave is discretionary. It's granted in only a small share of commercial cases.

This week, do these

• Find the oldest unpaid due date and write down the date exactly three years after it.
• Go through your email and WhatsApp for any message where they admit the amount or promise to pay.
• Pull the ledger for their account and tick it off against your bank statement.
• Dig out the signed contract or the purchase orders, and look for interest, jurisdiction and arbitration clauses.
• Confirm the other side's exact legal name and registered address.
• If summons has been served on you, note the date of service. Don't wait for the first hearing to start work.
• Stop sending angry messages. Anything you write could turn up later as an exhibit.

How we take on a commercial matter

The first meeting is about your papers. It isn't a sales pitch. We read the contract and the correspondence, check limitation, value and forum, and tell you straight whether we think a suit, a summary suit, mediation, arbitration or doing nothing at all fits your case. Advocate Sadhna Singh works on recovery and commercial court files day to day with Advocate B.K. Singh. When a case has to be filed outside Delhi NCR, the firm works with associate counsel in that state.

We talk about fees at the first meeting and agree them in writing, stage by stage, so you know what each step involves before it begins. Court fees, mediation fees, local commissioner's fees and other out-of-pocket costs are separate, and we'll explain them in advance.

Want your contract, invoices and emails looked at before your next move? Send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.