In short. If you lose in a commercial court, your appeal goes under Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. Usually it's heard by the Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court, a bench of two judges. In some states it goes first to a Commercial Appellate Court at district level. You have 60 days from the judgment or order. You can appeal the final decree and the interim orders listed in Order XLIII CPC. Nothing else. The law expects a decision within six months. Apply for the certified copy today and write down your 60th day.
Is this your situation?
- The judgment came out in the commercial court at Saket last Friday, and it went against you.
- You won your suit. Now there's a notice saying the other side has appealed, and you don't know if your decree is frozen.
- The judge refused your injunction, or attached your stock before judgment, and you can't tell if that order can be appealed at all.
- Your right to file a written statement was closed for delay. Or your amendment was thrown out.
- The court rejected your plaint at the first hearing. Should you appeal, or just file a fresh suit?
- It's been more than 60 days since the judgment, and someone has told you the appeal may already be time-barred.
What is the Commercial Appellate Division?
Think of it as the High Court's commercial appeals bench. Section 5 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 creates it, and each High Court's Chief Justice constitutes it by order, with one or more Division Benches of two judges apiece. In Delhi, it takes appeals from the commercial courts at District Judge level in every district complex. It also takes appeals from single judges of the High Court's own Commercial Division (that's where commercial suits above Rs 2 crore are tried). And where an arbitration involved a commercial dispute of specified value, appeals under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 land here too.
The thinking was specialisation and speed. Commercial appeals don't join the general pile of regular first appeals. They're listed before benches assigned to commercial work. And Section 14 of the Act asks the appellate bench to try to finish an appeal within six months of filing. Plenty of appeals take longer than that. Still, in most High Courts the listing is noticeably quicker than an ordinary civil appeal.
What does that mean for you? If you lose in a commercial court, you get one full appeal, on facts and on law, before two High Court judges. The window is a strict 60 days. After that, all that's left is the Supreme Court's discretionary jurisdiction.
Commercial Appellate Court, Commercial Appellate Division, Commercial Division: who does what?
The names are maddeningly similar. So let's lay them out. At district level, the trial court for commercial suits is simply called a Commercial Court. Some High Courts also try commercial suits on their original side, through a bench called the Commercial Division; only Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Himachal Pradesh have this. The bench of the High Court that hears commercial appeals is the Commercial Appellate Division. Then there's the Commercial Appellate Court. The 2018 amendment brought it in as Section 3A. It sits at District Judge level and hears appeals from commercial courts that sit lower down.
Which court you'll deal with depends on your state's set-up. Delhi's High Court has ordinary original civil jurisdiction, so Delhi's commercial courts are pitched at District Judge level and every appeal from them goes directly to the High Court. In other states, the government may create commercial courts below District Judge level. If it has, an appeal from one of those lies first to the district's Commercial Appellate Court, under Section 13(1). Commercial courts at District Judge level send their appeals up to the High Court under Section 13(1A).
In Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, the commercial courts in districts like Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Gurugram and Faridabad sit at District Judge level in the courts designated for the purpose. Appeals go to the Commercial Appellate Division of the Allahabad High Court and of the Punjab and Haryana High Court respectively. Notifications do change. Check the current designation for your district before you file.
The sections that govern commercial appeals
Section 13(1) and (1A), Commercial Courts Act, 2015
If you're aggrieved by what a commercial court below District Judge level has decided, you appeal to the Commercial Appellate Court. If the decision came from a District Judge level commercial court or from a Commercial Division, your appeal goes to the Commercial Appellate Division. Either way, the limit is 60 days. Under the proviso, an appeal against an order is possible only if that order appears in Order XLIII CPC or in Section 37 of the Arbitration Act.
Section 13(2), Commercial Courts Act
No appeal lies from any order or decree of a Commercial Division or commercial court except as the Act provides, whatever any other law or a High Court's Letters Patent may say. The Supreme Court read this strictly in Kandla Export Corporation v. OCI Corporation (2018). If the Act doesn't allow the appeal, there isn't one.
Section 8, Commercial Courts Act
You can't file a civil revision application or petition against an interlocutory order of a commercial court. That includes an order on jurisdiction. Any such challenge has to wait for the appeal against the decree.
Section 14, Commercial Courts Act; Order XLI, CPC
Commercial Appellate Courts and the Commercial Appellate Division are to try to dispose of appeals within six months. The appeal itself runs on Order XLI CPC: a memorandum of appeal, deposit or security in money decrees under Rule 1(3), stay under Rule 5, cross-objections under Rule 22, and additional evidence only under Rule 27.
Commercial appeal under Section 13: which orders can you actually appeal?
Start with final decisions. Every one of them can go up under Section 13. A decree passed after a full trial. A decree in a summary suit where leave to defend was refused. A summary judgment under Order XIIIA. And orders the law treats as decrees, the commonest being rejection of a plaint. In MITC Rolling Mills v. Renuka Realtors (2025), the Supreme Court said in terms that rejecting a plaint finally decides the suit, so it's appealable under Section 13(1A). Our guide on when a commercial court can reject a plaint explains that stage.
Mid-suit orders work differently. The only ones you can take up are those in Order XLIII Rule 1 CPC and those in Section 37 of the Arbitration Act. From Order XLIII, the ones that matter most in commercial work are these: a plaint sent back to the proper court; a refusal, under Order IX Rule 13, to set aside an ex parte decree; attachment before judgment under Order XXXVIII; a temporary injunction granted or refused under Order XXXIX (Rules 1, 2, 2A, 4 and 10); and a receiver appointed under Order XL. Section 37, for its part, lets you appeal when the court won't send the parties to arbitration under Section 8, when it grants or refuses interim measures under Section 9, and when it sets aside an award under Section 34 or refuses to.
The rest can't be appealed. Some of those orders feel final to the side that lost them. Closing the right to file a written statement. Refusing an amendment. Refusing to condone delay in filing documents. Framing issues, or refusing to. Dismissing an application to reject the plaint. Granting conditional leave to defend in a summary suit. None of these can be appealed on its own under Section 13.
Everyday orders in a commercial suit: can you appeal?
| Order | Appeal under Section 13? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Final decree after trial | Yes | It's a judgment and decree |
| Decree in a summary suit after leave to defend is refused | Yes | Decree under Order XXXVII |
| Summary judgment under Order XIIIA | Yes | A judgment on the merits |
| Rejection of plaint, Order VII Rule 11 | Yes | Treated as a decree; confirmed in MITC Rolling Mills (2025) |
| Dismissal of an application to reject the plaint | No | Interlocutory, and not in Order XLIII |
| Return of plaint, Order VII Rule 10 | Yes | Order XLIII Rule 1(a) |
| Temporary injunction granted or refused | Yes | Order XLIII Rule 1(r) |
| Attachment before judgment, Order XXXVIII | Yes | Order XLIII Rule 1(q) |
| Receiver appointed, Order XL | Yes | Order XLIII Rule 1(s) |
| Refusal to set aside an ex parte decree, Order IX Rule 13 | Yes | Order XLIII Rule 1(d) |
| Right to file written statement closed | No | Not listed; take it up in the appeal against the decree |
| Amendment of pleadings refused | No | Not listed; take it up in the appeal against the decree |
| Conditional leave to defend in a summary suit | No | Not listed; Article 227 only in rare cases |
| Refusal to refer to arbitration under Section 8 | Yes | Section 37(1)(a), Arbitration Act |
What can you do about an order you can't appeal?
You have three options. None is as strong as an appeal. The first is to wait. Section 105 CPC lets you raise an error in an interlocutory order, if it affected the decision, in the appeal against the final decree. So if your written statement was wrongly shut out and you lose the suit, your appeal can go after both the closing order and the decree. The catch is obvious. You fight the whole trial with one hand tied.
The second is a petition under Article 227 of the Constitution, which gives the High Court supervisory power over the courts in its territory. Section 8 of the Commercial Courts Act bars revisions, but it can't take away a constitutional power. Even so, High Courts use Article 227 sparingly in commercial cases. Parliament wanted interlocutory fights to wait for the appeal, and the judges know it. Realistically, a petition stands a chance only where the order is plainly without jurisdiction, or causes an obvious miscarriage of justice that can't wait.
The third is to ask the trial court to look at it again. That means a review under Order XLVII CPC where there's an error apparent on the face of the record, or a fresh application if circumstances have changed. In defence files that reach Advocate B.K. Singh after a bad interim order, his first question is always whether the order appears in Order XLIII at all. We've seen businesses lose a month drafting a Section 13 appeal that the registry was always going to flag as not maintainable. Their real choices were an Article 227 petition, or saving the point for the final appeal.
How are the 60 days counted, and will the court forgive a delay?
The 60 days start from the date of the judgment or order. Not from when you got a copy. Under Section 12 of the Limitation Act, 1963, the day of the judgment is left out, and so is the time spent getting a certified copy, as long as you applied for the copy within the period. The days that slip by before you apply are not left out. The safe course is to apply for the certified copy on the day of the judgment, or the next working day, and to file comfortably inside 60 days without leaning on the copy exclusion at all.
Delay can be condoned under Section 5 of the Limitation Act. In commercial appeals, though, courts treat that as the exception. In Government of Maharashtra v. Borse Brothers Engineers and Contractors (2021), the Supreme Court held that Section 5 does apply to these appeals, but that condoning delay beyond the statutory period should happen by way of exception and not by way of rule, given that commercial disputes are meant to be decided quickly. You have to explain the delay with specific facts and documents. 'Board approval took time', a change of counsel, general business pressure: a commercial appellate bench is rarely impressed by any of these.
The same 60-day limit applies to appeals against interim orders under Order XLIII. Picture a company that loses its injunction application and waits for the next trial date before deciding whether to appeal. It can find itself out of time while the damage carries on. The detailed counting rules, with examples, are on our page about filing a commercial appeal against a judgment.
What does the appeal court really look at?
A first appeal from a decree is a rehearing on facts and on law. The Commercial Appellate Division reads the pleadings, the documents, the oral evidence and the judgment, and it can reverse findings of fact if the trial court misread the evidence. Clients often don't expect it to go that far. That breadth is exactly why an appeal deserves serious thought when the trial judge has skipped over an important document or put the burden of proof on the wrong side.
But it's not a second trial. Fresh evidence comes in only within the tight limits of Order XLI Rule 27, for instance where the trial court wrongly refused to admit evidence, or where the party couldn't produce it despite due diligence. A document you simply forgot to file won't get in. In commercial suits, where Order XI makes you disclose every document with your pleadings, that limit bites even harder.
Appeals against interim orders are narrower still. On an injunction appeal, the bench won't swap in its own discretion just because it might have decided differently. Following Wander Ltd. v. Antox India (1990), it steps in where the trial court used its discretion arbitrarily, capriciously or perversely, or ignored settled principles. Our page on interim injunctions sets out what the trial court weighs. The appeal court tests the same ground.
Does filing an appeal stop execution of the decree?
No. Order XLI Rule 5 says an appeal doesn't operate as a stay of the decree. The decree holder can begin execution the day after the decree, and you, as appellant, have to apply for a stay separately. In an appeal against a money decree, Order XLI Rule 1(3) makes the appellant deposit the disputed amount or furnish security as the appellate court directs. In practice, Commercial Appellate Divisions usually grant a stay of execution only if you deposit all or a big part of the decretal amount, sometimes with interest, or give a bank guarantee.
That changes the sums for an appellant. Before you file, work out honestly whether you can put the decretal amount in court within a few weeks. If you can't get a stay, your bank accounts and receivables stay open to attachment the whole time the appeal is pending. For the decree holder, a deposit is often good news. The court may let you withdraw it against security, and either way the money is safe even if the appeal drags on for a year.
Won below, and the other side has appealed without getting a stay? Carry on with execution unless the appellate court says otherwise. Our page on execution of a decree explains how to attach accounts and property.
How a commercial appeal travels from filing to judgment
Apply for the certified copy
On the day of judgment, or the next working day, apply for a certified copy of the judgment and decree. Note the date you applied and the date the copy was ready. You'll need both for limitation.
Read it for grounds
Go through the judgment with the pleadings and evidence beside it. List the findings of fact the evidence doesn't support, the legal mistakes, and any interlocutory orders you want to challenge alongside the decree under Section 105 CPC.
Draft and file the memorandum of appeal
Set out the grounds briefly, and attach the judgment, decree, pleadings, documents and evidence you rely on. Pay court fee on the amount disputed in appeal. File the stay application too, and if you're late, an application for condonation of delay with an affidavit.
Admission and stay hearing
The bench hears the appeal for admission, decides whether to issue notice, and takes up the stay application, usually on condition of deposit or security where it's a money decree. Meet any deposit deadline. Miss it and the stay, or even the appeal, can be dismissed.
Service, cross-objections, record
The respondent is served and can file cross-objections within one month of service of notice under Order XLI Rule 22. The trial court record is sent for, or a paper book is prepared.
Final hearing and judgment
The appeal is argued on the record. The bench can affirm, reverse or modify, and in limited cases send the matter back to the trial court. After that, the only challenge left is before the Supreme Court.
How long a commercial appeal takes, and where the money goes
| Stage | Usual time | Cost points (lawyer fees separate) |
|---|---|---|
| Certified copy | A few days to a few weeks; a downloaded copy often comes sooner | Copying charges under the court rules |
| Filing the appeal | Inside 60 days of the judgment or order | Ad valorem court fee on the amount disputed in appeal; check the current state schedule |
| Admission and stay hearing | First listing is usually within weeks of filing | A deposit or bank guarantee for the decretal amount if you want a stay, plus the bank's charges for a guarantee |
| Cross-objections | Within one month of service of notice | Court fee on the cross-objection if it asks for money |
| Final hearing | The Act says six months; many take one to two years, depending on the bench's board | Preparing the paper book, and appearances |
| Special leave petition to the Supreme Court | Ordinarily within 90 days of the High Court judgment | Supreme Court court fee and filing through an Advocate-on-Record |
Papers you'll need for a commercial appeal
From the trial court file
- The certified copy of the judgment and decree sheet, or the downloaded copy along with an exemption application
- Your plaint, their written statement, the replication and any counterclaim
- Order sheets that show the interlocutory orders you're challenging
- The exhibited documents and the witnesses' depositions
For the appeal and the stay
- The memorandum of appeal, with short grounds and a list of dates
- A stay application that says what deposit or security you're offering
- A board resolution or authority letter for whoever signs and verifies
- A vakalatnama for appellate counsel
If you're filing late
- An application for condonation of delay under Section 5 of the Limitation Act
- An affidavit that explains each stretch of delay, with dates
- Whatever shows why the delay happened, like medical records, emails or orders
Should you appeal at all? A practical test
An appeal means spending money and management time all over again, and with a money decree, a deposit on top. It's worth it when there's a specific error you can point to and check. A document proving payment that the judge never considered. A limitation finding that ignored an acknowledgment you'd pleaded. Interest at a rate the contract doesn't support. A finding of fact with no evidence under it. It's rarely worth it when the trial judge simply believed the other side's witness and explained why.
When someone asks Advocate B.K. Singh whether a commercial judgment is worth appealing, he reads it once for what it decides. Then he reads it again with the trial record open, matching every ground to a page of evidence. A ground that can't be pinned to a page rarely survives the first hearing before a commercial bench. He tells the client so before the appeal is drafted. Not after the deposit is in.
Think, too, about what an appeal does to the other side. A pending appeal with money deposited in court often brings a sensible settlement offer, and Commercial Appellate Divisions regularly send suitable appeals to mediation. If you already have doubts about how the trial was run, fresh eyes help, and our guide on getting a second opinion on a commercial case already in court explains how to get one without upsetting the case.
An invented example: the ledger the trial court didn't read
This example is made up, to show the shape of a sound appeal. A Raj Nagar Extension (Ghaziabad) electrical contractor does the wiring and panels for a private hospital in Greater Noida. It isn't paid, and it files for Rs 64 lakh before the Gautam Buddh Nagar commercial court. The hospital's answer is that the work was faulty, and that Rs 20 lakh went to the contractor in cash and was never credited. The court dismisses most of the claim. Its reason: the contractor's ledger, maintained on accounting software, wasn't proved.
Then a new lawyer reads the trial record properly. It turns out the ledger print-out was on file all along, with a Section 63 certificate under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. Worse for the hospital, its own witness had conceded in cross-examination that it signed a balance confirmation in 2023. Neither point appears anywhere in the judgment. Under Section 13(1A), the appeal goes to the Allahabad High Court's Commercial Appellate Division. The contractor files on day 41. With it go the certified copy and a short set of grounds, every one pinned to a page number in the record.
Since the contractor lost, there's no money decree against it. No deposit question arises. The hospital files cross-objections on the small slice of the claim the trial court did allow. The appeal is heard over the next year. Nobody can promise how it ends, and that isn't the point. The point is what a good appeal looks like: specific errors, tied to the record, filed on time.
Where your appeal goes in Delhi, UP and Haryana, and how it differs by business
In Delhi, appeals from the district commercial courts at Tis Hazari, Saket, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka and Patiala House, and from the High Court's own Commercial Division, go to the Commercial Appellate Division of the Delhi High Court. Filing is electronic. The registry's scrutiny for defects is thorough, so keep a few days within your 60 for curing objections.
Lose in Ghaziabad or Gautam Buddh Nagar and your appeal goes to Prayagraj, to the Commercial Appellate Division of the Allahabad High Court. Both districts come under the principal seat. The Lucknow Bench doesn't hear them. From Gurugram and Faridabad, it's Chandigarh and the Punjab and Haryana High Court. So a Delhi NCR business may need counsel who appear in that High Court week in, week out, working with the trial lawyer who knows the file.
Your line of business changes the calculation too. Say you're a supplier or service firm and you lost your recovery suit. You're the appellant, there's nothing to deposit, and your outlay is court fee and counsel. A buyer facing a money decree is in a different spot: it has to find the deposit, and settling may make more sense. Lenders whose loan recovery was dismissed often have limitation or documentation points, and those tend to suit an appeal. A startup has to ask whether it has the people and the patience, and what that money would earn elsewhere. Big companies often need sign-offs to file and to deposit. Get those moving on the day of the judgment. Not on day 50.
After the Commercial Appellate Division: the Supreme Court, and review
Commercial cases get no second appeal. After the Commercial Appellate Division rules, what remains is a special leave petition under Article 136 of the Constitution. You'd ordinarily file it within 90 days of the High Court's judgment. The Supreme Court gives leave as a matter of discretion, and in commercial cases only a small share get it, mostly where a substantial question of law is involved or something has gone seriously wrong. Only an Advocate-on-Record can file. Our page on Supreme Court appeals in commercial matters explains the paper book and the stages.
You can also seek review before the same bench under Order XLVII CPC for an error apparent on the face of the record, ordinarily within 30 days. It isn't a rehearing. Keep it for clear slips, like a figure added up wrongly or a document recorded as missing when it was right there on file.
Was the decree passed in your absence, rather than on the merits? Then the first remedy is usually an application in the trial court to set it aside, with an appeal under Order XLIII if that's refused. Our page on setting aside an ex parte decree covers that route.
What to do this week if a commercial judgment has gone against you
Apply for the certified copy today. Write the 60th day in big numbers on the front of the file. Then check whether the order you want to challenge is a decree, an order listed in Order XLIII or Section 37, or neither, because that tells you whether a Section 13 appeal exists at all. If it's a money decree, work out what you could deposit in the next month and get the internal approvals moving now.
If you won and they've appealed, diary the date for cross-objections. Then decide whether to start execution now or wait for the stay hearing. Our page on the commercial appeal sets out the steps and the stay arguments.
If you'd like a judgment or interim order read for appeal grounds, or want to know how the commercial appellate benches are currently treating delay and deposits, you can send your papers to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Is an appeal to the Commercial Appellate Division heard by one judge or two?
Two. It's a Division Bench. Section 5 of the Commercial Courts Act requires the Chief Justice to constitute the Commercial Appellate Division with one or more Division Benches. That holds for appeals from district commercial courts and from single judges of the Commercial Division.
Can I file a Letters Patent appeal against a Commercial Division single judge's order?
No. Section 13(2) shuts out Letters Patent appeals in commercial matters, and the Supreme Court read it strictly in Kandla Export Corporation (2018). An appeal lies only where Section 13 allows it, meaning a final judgment or an order listed in Order XLIII or Section 37 of the Arbitration Act.
Does the 60-day limit apply to appeals against interim injunction orders?
Yes. Section 13 gives appealable orders the same 60-day period as judgments. Injunction matters are urgent, though. Most parties file well before the deadline, often within days, with an application for urgent listing.
Can the appeal court send the case back for a fresh trial?
It can remand in limited situations. One is where the trial court decided the suit on a preliminary point and left the rest undecided. Another is where essential evidence was wrongly kept out. Where the record allows, commercial appellate benches prefer to decide the appeal themselves and avoid more delay.
Who pays the costs of a commercial appeal?
The loser usually pays. Section 35 CPC, in the form amended for commercial disputes, lets the bench make the losing side pay the winner's reasonable costs. Delay or frivolous grounds can attract costs of their own. Your court fee and any deposit are a separate matter.
Can I raise an argument in the appeal that I didn't raise at trial?
A pure question of law arising on facts already on record usually can be raised. A new factual case, or one needing fresh evidence, generally can't. That's one more reason to get your pleadings and evidence complete at trial.
What happens to interest on the decree while the appeal is pending?
Interest under the decree keeps running unless the appellate court orders otherwise. Money deposited in court may earn interest if invested under the court's directions, which eases the burden a little. Read the decree's interest clause before deciding how much to deposit.
Can a commercial appeal be settled?
Yes. Parties can compromise at the appeal stage, and Commercial Appellate Divisions often send appeals to mediation. The settlement is recorded and the decree modified to match. A deposit you've already made can count towards the payment.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, district and commercial courts in Delhi NCR, and tribunals.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.