In short. When a High Court's Commercial Appellate Division decides your appeal against you, there's usually one road left. That's a special leave petition, or SLP, to the Supreme Court under Article 136 of the Constitution. Plaintiff or defendant, either can file. The clock is ordinarily 90 days from the High Court's judgment. Leave is granted in only a small share of cases. You might get a first hearing within weeks, while a full appeal can run for years. This week, apply for the certified copy and have the judgment read for a real point of law.
Is this your situation?
- The Commercial Appellate Division at the Delhi, Allahabad or Punjab and Haryana High Court has thrown out your appeal, or reversed the decree you'd won.
- The High Court has told you to pay a large sum with interest, and the decree holder is already talking about execution.
- You think the High Court got a point of law wrong. Limitation, maybe, or Section 12A mediation, or what a clause in the contract really meant.
- Your commercial appeal never got heard on merits. The High Court refused to condone the delay and dismissed it.
- You won in the High Court, and now a Supreme Court notice has arrived saying the other side has filed an SLP.
- A Division Bench granted or set aside an injunction or attachment, and the hit to your business is serious.
- The 90 days are ticking and your board still hasn't decided whether to go further.
What an SLP in a commercial case actually is
An SLP is you asking the Supreme Court of India for permission to appeal a High Court judgment or order. Article 136 of the Constitution leaves that to the Court's discretion, in any case at all. There's no right of appeal here. First the Court decides whether it'll hear you. Only a grant of leave turns the petition into a civil appeal, argued on merits.
The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 strips out the middle rungs, which is why the SLP matters more in commercial cases than in ordinary civil ones. Under Section 13 you get a single appeal to the High Court's Commercial Appellate Division, and 60 days to file it. Section 13(2) then rules out every other appeal, a letters patent appeal included. After a Division Bench of the Commercial Appellate Division rules, the Supreme Court is usually the only door still open.
This page deals with commercial judgments. Think money decrees in recovery suits, damages for breach of contract, injunctions in IP, lease and franchise fights, and orders in execution. It's written for both sides: the party who won below and now faces an SLP, and the party who lost and wants to file one. For a wider view of the Supreme Court's commercial work, see our page on the Supreme Court of India.
The law, without the jargon
Article 136, Constitution of India
This is the Supreme Court's discretion to let an appeal in from any judgment, decree, determination, sentence or order of any court or tribunal in India. Courts martial are the only exception. On paper the power has almost no limits. In practice the Court keeps it for a substantial question of law or a grave injustice. Evidence the High Court already weighed won't be weighed a second time.
Section 13, Commercial Courts Act, 2015
One appeal, to the Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court, within 60 days. That's from a Commercial Court at District Judge level or from a High Court's Commercial Division. Then Section 13(2) closes the door on any other appeal, so you can't go up again inside the High Court. For that first appeal, read our page on appeals against commercial court judgments.
Order XXI, Supreme Court Rules, 2013
The ordinary deadline for a civil SLP is 90 days from the order under challenge, or 60 days from the order if what the High Court refused was a certificate of fitness to appeal. Your petition can rely only on what the High Court had in front of it, pleadings and documents both. Anything new goes in by separate application. File it with the certified copy (or ask for exemption) and an affidavit on the facts. A stay or other interim prayer can sit in the same petition.
Order XXI Rules 9 and 11, Supreme Court Rules, 2013
Where nobody has lodged a caveat, the Court hears the petitioner alone at the first stage, though it can still send notice to the other side. A caveator has to be told of the hearing. Where you need delay condoned, the respondent gets heard on it first. After leave, the petition simply becomes the appeal. Any extra court fee is payable then.
Advocates-on-Record, Supreme Court Rules, 2013
Filing and acting in the Supreme Court is reserved for Advocates-on-Record. Any other advocate can argue, but on the AoR's instructions. That's why an SLP usually has two lawyers on it, one filing and one arguing. Sometimes one advocate does both, if he or she is on record.
Review and curative petitions
You get 30 days to seek review of a Supreme Court judgment. Most reviews are dealt with in chambers. Nobody argues them orally. Beyond that sits the curative petition, which the Court recognised in Rupa Ashok Hurra v. Ashok Hurra (2002). It's for a very narrow set of cases, a breach of natural justice for example, and a Senior Advocate must certify it.
When the Supreme Court actually steps in
Honestly? Not often. The Supreme Court gets tens of thousands of SLPs a year and dismisses most of them at admission, often in a single line. A commercial SLP that only says the High Court should have believed your witness and not theirs, or should have read an invoice differently, will almost certainly fail. Where the trial court and the High Court reached the same finding of fact, the Court doesn't ordinarily weigh the evidence again.
The petitions that stand a real chance usually raise one of a handful of points. One is a question of law that matters beyond your case: how Section 12A mediation applies, when an acknowledgment extends limitation, or how interest under Section 34 of the CPC should be worked out in a commercial deal. Another is a plain error of jurisdiction, like a suit decided by a court with no territorial or pecuniary power to hear it. A conflict between High Courts on the same provision is a third. It does happen. And sometimes the result is so plainly wrong on the record that leaving it in place would be a grave injustice.
When Advocate B.K. Singh reads a High Court commercial judgment with an SLP in mind, he first asks whether the case can be put as a question of law in two or three lines. If it can only be explained as a disagreement over facts, the petition is weak. However unfair the result feels. That one test has saved a lot of clients from paying for a petition that would've died at the first hearing.
A short dismissal at the threshold, with no reasons, generally doesn't mean the Supreme Court approved the High Court's reasoning. It means the Court chose not to interfere. That's all. It matters when the same legal point comes up again in another case.
The 90 days, and what happens if you're late
Count the 90 days from the date the High Court pronounced its judgment or order. If you applied for the certified copy in time, the days spent waiting for it are ordinarily left out. Confirm that calculation with your Advocate-on-Record. Don't guess. Many SLPs are filed with the copy downloaded from the High Court website and an application for exemption from the certified copy, so nothing waits on the copying branch.
The Court can condone delay for sufficient cause. Commercial litigants shouldn't count on it. Again and again the Supreme Court has said commercial disputes must move quickly. In Government of Maharashtra v. Borse Brothers Engineers and Contractors (2021) it said delay in Section 13 commercial appeals is to be condoned only as an exception, and never for a negligent party. That ruling dealt with appeals to the High Court. The same impatience shows up with late commercial SLPs.
A common trap. Your appeal was dismissed in the High Court only because it was late, and you want to argue the decree was wrong. You can't, not directly. The SLP has to go after the refusal to condone delay, and the Supreme Court asks one thing: was the High Court's view on delay reasonable? The decree's merits stay out of it unless the delay order is set aside and the appeal sent back.
Filing a commercial SLP, step by step
This is roughly how an SLP against a High Court commercial judgment moves. Speed depends on the Court's list and on how urgent your matter really is.
Get the judgment and the whole record
Ask for the certified copy the day the judgment comes. Pull together the appeal's paper book as well, with the trial court decree, the pleadings and the documents everyone argued over. Nothing outside that record can go into the SLP.
Find the question of law
Someone needs to read the judgment looking for a point the Supreme Court will care about. Put it in two or three questions of law. If you can't, the honest options are a review in the High Court, a settlement, or paying up.
Draft the SLP paper book
Form No. 28 is the format. Up front go the synopsis and list of dates. After them come the questions of law and the grounds, then the interim prayer and the judgment under challenge. Only documents that were filed in the High Court can be annexed, as certified copies or copies sworn true by affidavit.
File through an Advocate-on-Record
Your AoR lodges it at the filing counter or on the e-filing portal, with court fee and vakalatnama. The registry goes through it and flags defects. Fix them in the time given. Don't let it sit.
The admission hearing
It's listed for a preliminary hearing, normally before two judges. Three things can happen. The Court dismisses it, sends notice to the other side, or grants leave on the spot. Stay applications are usually heard here too.
Notice, counter and rejoinder
Once notice issues, the respondent answers with a counter affidavit. You can reply with a rejoinder. At the next listing the Court may dispose of it at the notice stage, or grant leave.
Leave granted, and the civil appeal
With leave, the SLP turns into a civil appeal. Then comes the wait. Final hearing depends on the Court's list unless it orders an early date, and interim orders normally stay in force till then.
If you won below, get a caveat into the Supreme Court registry soon after the judgment, so nobody gets an ex parte stay behind your back.
How long each stage takes, and what it costs
| Stage | Usual time | Costs involved (apart from lawyer fees) |
|---|---|---|
| Certified copy of the High Court judgment | Days, sometimes a few weeks | The High Court's copying charges |
| Preparing the SLP paper book | Two to four weeks, inside the 90-day limit | Typing, printing or e-filing charges, notary |
| Filing and registry scrutiny | Defects fixed within the registry's deadline | Court fee, a modest fixed sum under the Supreme Court Rules; check the current schedule |
| First listing for admission | Commonly a few weeks once defects are cleared; urgent matters can be mentioned for an early date | Nothing particular |
| Notice stage (counter and rejoinder) | Several months is normal | Process fee; any deposit the Court directs |
| Leave granted and civil appeal | Final hearing in a year, or several | Extra court fee on conversion, where payable |
| Mediation, if the Court refers you | A handful of sessions across weeks or months | Any fee or cost sharing gets fixed at the time of referral |
| Review petition after dismissal | 30 days to file; usually heard in chambers | Court fee as currently scheduled |
Staying the decree, deposits and interest
An SLP on its own doesn't stop execution. If the High Court upheld a money decree, the decree holder can press on with execution while your petition sits in the Supreme Court. Only a stay stops that. And in money cases, stays come with strings. You deposit all or part of the decretal amount in the Supreme Court registry or the trial court, or give security, within a set time.
Everyone hopes for an unconditional stay. With a commercial money decree, you'll rarely get one. The Court sees no reason the decree holder should wait years unprotected. A deposit order isn't a finding against you. If you win, the money comes back, often with the interest it earned in a fixed deposit. If you lose, the decree holder takes it.
All this while, interest runs at the decree rate. Section 34 of the CPC lets courts go above 6 percent in commercial transactions, usually by reference to the contract rate or bank lending rates. Give it two or three years in the Supreme Court and interest alone can come to a big share of the principal. That's why some judgment debtors deposit early. Others settle.
Papers you'll need for a commercial SLP
From the High Court
- The judgment you're challenging, certified, or a downloaded copy plus an exemption application
- Your appeal memo, and any cross-objections
- Whatever written submissions went in
- Any interim orders from the appeal
From the trial court
- The Commercial Court's or Commercial Division's judgment and decree
- Plaint, written statement, counter-claim and replication
- Admission and denial affidavits, and the issues
- The evidence that matters, meaning the main exhibits, the evidence affidavits and the useful bits of cross-examination
Company and authority papers
- Board resolution or authority letter for the person signing the affidavit and vakalatnama
- The deponent's ID and address proof
- What's been paid or deposited under the decree till now
- The latest order in execution, and where it stands
If you're the respondent
- Your caveat, with proof it was served
- The Supreme Court notice and the SLP paper book
- Your calculation of what's due under the decree, interest included
Where it's filed: one court for the whole country
It doesn't matter which High Court you lost in. The SLP is filed in one place, the Supreme Court on Tilak Marg in New Delhi. No pecuniary limit applies, and territory doesn't come into it. A Rs 5 lakh fight from Gurugram and a Rs 500 crore fight from Chennai land in the same registry. You can file at the counter or online through e-filing, and many benches now hear matters by video conference as well as in the courtroom.
Delhi NCR businesses often find the SLP easier on travel than the appeal before it. Ghaziabad and Noida appeals go up to the Allahabad High Court in Prayagraj, while Gurugram and Faridabad appeals go to the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh. Both come home to Delhi for the SLP. A Delhi matter reaches the Supreme Court from the Commercial Appellate Division of the Delhi High Court.
Value matters in one practical way. Small money disputes that turn on facts get leave less readily. Size alone won't earn leave. But a large commercial matter with a proper legal question tends to get notice, and a closer look.
Which orders you can take up, and which you mostly can't
Most SLPs target a final judgment of the Commercial Appellate Division. Interim orders can go up too, once a Division Bench has dealt with them: injunctions, attachment before judgment, a receiver's appointment and the like. Don't expect much appetite, though. The Supreme Court tends to leave interim orders alone and tell the courts below to decide the main case fast.
Then there are interlocutory orders of a commercial court that Section 13 doesn't let you appeal at all, since only orders listed in Order XLIII of the CPC are appealable. People try Article 227 of the Constitution in the High Court instead, and come to the Supreme Court from there. That rarely gets entertained. Meanwhile your own suit stalls.
Arbitration has a separate track. Section 37 appeals under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 are heard by the High Court, and an SLP lies from there. We handle that side at arbitrationlawyer.in. NCLAT decisions under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code are different again. They go up under Section 62 of that Code, as a statutory appeal and not an SLP, and ncltlawyers.in covers those.
When the other side files an SLP against you
If you won in the High Court, expect the losing side to think about an SLP, more so with a large money decree. Lodge a caveat in the Supreme Court soon after the judgment. Without one, the first hearing is ex parte and a stay can be granted without anyone hearing you. With one, you get notice, and you can oppose the stay outright or at least argue that any stay should come with a deposit condition attached.
Don't halt execution just because an SLP has been filed. Unless the Supreme Court has stayed the decree, you can carry on in the trial court. Judgment debtors often tell the executing court an SLP is pending, hoping for an adjournment. The executing court isn't bound to wait without a stay. In Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021), the Supreme Court directed that execution proceedings should ordinarily be decided within six months.
If notice is issued, your counter affidavit is where you show the Court there's no question here worth its time. Keep it short. Point to the concurrent findings of fact and attach the main documents. A long counter that re-argues the whole trial often helps the petitioner, because it makes the case look complicated.
Mistakes that sink commercial SLPs
- Re-arguing facts. If the SLP reads like written submissions in the trial court, it's usually gone at the first hearing.
- Slipping in new documents. You're confined to the record below. A new document needs a separate application, and a good reason.
- Missing the 90 days. Commercial delay is viewed strictly. 'The file was waiting for internal approvals' rarely persuades anyone.
- Ignoring the deposit question. If you want a stay of a money decree, come ready to offer a deposit or security. Turning up without funds can cost you the stay.
- Treating a dismissal as approval. A short dismissal order doesn't lay down law. Don't cite it as though it did.
- No caveat after a win. A stay can be granted against you before you even know the SLP exists.
- Too many grounds. Twenty grounds bury the two that matter. Lead with the question of law.
How this differs for suppliers, service firms, lenders, startups, MSMEs and large companies
Suppliers and traders who hold a High Court decree mainly need two things. Keep execution going. And if the buyer files an SLP, push for a deposit condition. A service firm that lost on a finding that its work was deficient is in a weaker spot. We'd usually advise against an SLP there, unless the finding comes from misreading the contract, which can be a legal question.
Lenders, and people who advanced money to a business, tend to meet SLPs arguing limitation, or arguing it was an investment and never a loan. Those can be real legal questions. MSMEs claiming interest under Sections 15 to 17 of the MSMED Act, 2006 sometimes get SLPs on whether they were registered at the relevant time. Fight that one properly. It's a point of law.
For a startup or smaller business, weigh the cost and the years against the amount in dispute, and think hard about what a deposit order would do to cash flow. Big companies often file SLPs in high-value matters out of policy. The Court is well aware of it. It frequently orders deposits, or mediation. In Delhi, UP and Haryana alike the SLP procedure doesn't change. The High Court you come from does, and so does how many years the case has already eaten.
A made-up example: a limitation point that reached the Supreme Court
Invented facts, for illustration. A Faridabad engineering firm does fabrication work for a Gurugram contractor and sues in the Gurugram commercial court for Rs 1.6 crore. Time-barred, says the contractor. The last invoice is more than three years older than the suit. The firm points to a balance confirmation email from the contractor's accounts manager, sent inside the three years, and calls it an acknowledgment under Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963. The trial court agrees and passes a decree with interest.
On appeal, the Punjab and Haryana High Court's Commercial Appellate Division reverses. An accounts manager's email, without proof he had authority, isn't a valid acknowledgment, it says. The firm files an SLP inside 90 days with a single question: can a company's accounts official acknowledge a debt under Section 18 by emailing a balance confirmation? Notice is issued. The contractor looks at years of interest piling up, agrees to mediation, and settles.
Notice the shape. One clean legal question, no argument about facts. None of this predicts how the Supreme Court would treat a real case.
Settling while the SLP is pending
Plenty of commercial SLPs end in settlement, not judgment. The Supreme Court often sends parties to its mediation centre, especially in money disputes between businesses that used to trade with each other. A settlement the Supreme Court records is binding and ends the matter, execution included. If you're open to settling, say so early. Benches notice.
A settlement can be partial too. Sometimes the parties agree the principal and leave only the interest rate to the Court. That narrows the hearing and cuts cost. Our page on settling a commercial case midway explains how compromises are recorded and enforced.
Not every case belongs in the Supreme Court. If the High Court judgment rests on facts, the deposit would be large and interest is running, paying or settling is often the wiser call. We'd rather say that plainly. It's part of the advice.
What to do this week
Find the date of the High Court judgment and mark day 90 on a calendar. Apply for the certified copy today, not next week. Get the High Court paper book and the trial court file into one folder. Ask your accounts team to work out the decretal amount with interest up to now, because that figure tells you what a deposit order could cost.
If the judgment went your way, lodge a caveat and press on with execution until someone shows you a stay. If it went against you, get it assessed for a genuine legal question first and decide after. We file through Advocates-on-Record, and Advocate B.K. Singh can argue on instructions.
We talk about fees at the first meeting and put them in writing, stage by stage. Court fees, deposits and costs come on top. To have a High Court commercial judgment read for an SLP, or a caveat lodged quickly, send the papers to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I appeal to the Supreme Court against a High Court commercial judgment?
Not automatically. What you file is a special leave petition under Article 136 of the Constitution, which asks the Supreme Court to let you appeal. Leave comes only with a substantial question of law or a grave injustice.
What's the time limit for filing an SLP in a commercial case?
Normally 90 days from the High Court's judgment or order (Order XXI, Supreme Court Rules, 2013). If you applied for the certified copy in time, the waiting period is usually excluded. The Court can condone delay for sufficient cause. Commercial delay gets very little sympathy.
Is there a letters patent appeal in commercial matters?
No. Section 13(2) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 rules out any appeal the Act doesn't provide for. After the Commercial Appellate Division, it's an SLP or nothing.
Does filing an SLP stop execution of the decree?
No. The decree holder can keep executing until the Supreme Court stays the decree. For money decrees, the stay usually depends on you depositing some or all of the amount, or giving security.
Who can file an SLP in the Supreme Court?
An Advocate-on-Record, and nobody else, can file it. Any advocate can argue, on the AoR's instructions. We file through Advocates-on-Record.
How long does a commercial SLP take in the Supreme Court?
Once the registry clears it, the first listing is often a few weeks away. Notice adds several months. A civil appeal after leave can take a year, sometimes several. Many commercial SLPs settle or get disposed of at the notice stage.
What is a caveat in the Supreme Court, and should I file one?
It's a request to be heard before the Court passes any order on the other side's petition. If you won in the High Court, it keeps an ex parte stay from being granted. Cheap and simple. We'd file one.
Can I file new documents in an SLP?
Usually not. The SLP stays within the pleadings and documents the High Court had. A document outside that record needs its own application, with a reason it should come in.