Commercial Court Lawyer in Kolkata: Unpaid Dues, Contract Disputes and Suits Against Your Business

What we do for Kolkata businesses in commercial court

Most of what a commercial court lawyer in Kolkata does comes down to money and contracts. We take those disputes before the Commercial Division of the Calcutta High Court, the City Civil Court and the commercial courts in the districts around the city. That covers recovery suits, summary suits on invoices and cheques, injunctions, lease and partnership fights, defending suits filed against you, appeals and execution. B.K. Singh and Associates is based in Delhi NCR. We don't pretend otherwise. In Kolkata we work with associate counsel who practise in the city, and the Delhi team reads the papers, plans the case and stays on the file until it's done.

Kolkata disputes don't look like Delhi ones. The city still runs much of eastern India's trade: tea auctions and tea broking, jute mills and jute goods, steel and iron traded out of Burrabazar and Canning Street, chemicals, engineering units across the river in Howrah, port and logistics work tied to the Kolkata and Haldia docks, and a big IT and services crowd in Salt Lake and New Town. A lot of it crosses state lines. A Kolkata supplier ships to a buyer in Delhi or Ludhiana. A Kolkata trader buys from a mill in Gujarat. And the first fight is often about which court can hear the case at all.

Below we go through how the Kolkata courts split commercial work, how a case moves, what it costs in court fee and in time, which papers win or lose these cases, and the mistakes we keep seeing. It's general information as of October 2026. Your own answer turns on your contract, your address and your documents. Nothing else.

Which court in Kolkata will hear your case

Kolkata is odd in one way. The Calcutta High Court has ordinary original civil jurisdiction over the old town area of the city, so it hears some civil suits itself, as the first court. Lawyers call this the original side. Under Section 7 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, commercial suits filed on the original side go to the High Court's Commercial Division. Your dispute is commercial if it fits Section 2(1)(c) of the Act. The list is long: ordinary dealings between merchants and traders, supply and distribution, construction, partnership and shareholder agreements, IP, insurance, leases of property used only for business, and more. The specified value, worked out under Section 12, has to be Rs 3 lakh or more.

Inside the city, the money bands come from a state notification. In a 2024 decision the Calcutta High Court read a West Bengal notification of 20 March 2020 and put it this way. Commercial disputes above Rs 1 crore that arise within the original side limits go only to the High Court's Commercial Division. Between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore, you can file in either the High Court or the City Civil Court. Smaller commercial claims in the city go to the City Civil Court. These bands do change. Check the current notification before you file.

Step outside the old town limits and you're in the district commercial courts. West Bengal set up dedicated commercial courts at Alipore for South 24 Parganas and at Rajarhat for North 24 Parganas, and more have been notified for other districts. People underestimate this. Salt Lake, New Town and Rajarhat are in North 24 Parganas. Big parts of south Kolkata were added to the municipal corporation later, and they come under Alipore, not the High Court's original side. Howrah is a separate district altogether. So your Kolkata postal address doesn't tell you the court. We check every address against the jurisdiction map before a line of the plaint is drafted.

The general rules on value and territory, including how interest and property value get counted, are on our page about which commercial court gets your case.

Picking the forum for a Kolkata dispute

How the original side actually works

The original side has its own rules and its own habits. Don't expect district court practice. Suits there run under the High Court's Original Side Rules together with the Code of Civil Procedure as amended for commercial suits. Everything is in English. The plaint format, the verification, the way documents are annexed and the way the writ of summons is served all follow original side practice. Ignore it and the filing comes back with objections. Two amended rules matter from day one. Order VI Rule 15A wants a statement of truth. Order XI wants you to disclose every document in your power and possession that relates to the suit, and yes, that includes the ones that hurt you.

Outsiders trip on Clause 12 of the Letters Patent. Say only part of the cause of action arose inside the original side limits, and the defendant doesn't live or do business there. Then you must ask the court for leave to sue. Skip it and the suit can collapse on a technicality years later. It's one of the first things Advocate B.K. Singh asks the associate counsel when a Kolkata file comes in. Where was the contract made? Where was the money payable? Does the defendant keep any office inside the limits?

Listing delays cost real money. The High Court is heavily loaded, and for a claim in the concurrent band the City Civil Court can sometimes give you a quicker calendar. But a High Court suit is heard by a High Court judge at the first stage, the appeal goes to a Division Bench, and some clients with big or tangled claims want exactly that. There's no one right answer. We look at the value, the urgency and the relief you want. Then we choose.

Should you sue in Kolkata or in Delhi?

A lot of our Kolkata enquiries have a Delhi NCR party on the other side. The reverse is just as common. Section 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure lets you file where the defendant lives or carries on business, or where the cause of action arose, wholly or in part. In a supply deal, that can be where the contract was made, where the goods were delivered and where payment was due. So a Kolkata supplier with a Delhi buyer often gets to pick.

Your contract may take that choice away. If the purchase order or agreement says only the Delhi courts (or only the Kolkata courts) shall have jurisdiction, courts usually hold you to it, as long as the chosen court would have had jurisdiction anyway. Read the small print on the back of the purchase order. Read the vendor registration form, and your own invoice too. The clause is usually tucked into one of them.

Then ask where the money is. A Kolkata decree against a Delhi company has to go to a Delhi court for execution if the company's accounts and assets sit there. That's an extra step and a few extra months. In that situation it can make more sense to sue in Delhi from the start, and our page on Delhi's commercial courts covers that end. Assets in Kolkata? Then suing in Kolkata is usually cleaner.

The law behind a Kolkata commercial suit

A Kolkata recovery suit, stage by stage

1. Check the dates and the value

   List every unpaid invoice, its credit period, and the last payment or written acknowledgment. Under the Limitation Act, 1963, most money claims have to be filed within three years. A signed acknowledgment or a part payment restarts the clock. Add interest to the principal. That gives you the specified value, and the value picks the court.

2. Send a legal notice

   Send it to the defaulter's registered office and to the office where it actually works. Put in the principal, the interest and a short deadline. You don't legally need a notice before a commercial suit. We'd still send one. The reply usually shows you the defence you'll be up against.

3. Go to pre-institution mediation

   Apply under Section 12A to the legal services authority notified for the area. The other side gets notice. If it doesn't show up, or the talks go nowhere, the mediator gives you a non-starter or failure report, and that report goes in with your plaint.

4. Draft and file the plaint

   With the plaint you file a statement of truth, a list of documents, the Order XI disclosure affidavit and court fee under the West Bengal schedule. On the original side, add a Clause 12 leave application if you need one. If you're a company, get the board resolution or authority letter signed before anyone verifies the plaint. Registries notice the dates.

5. Service and the defence

   The defendant has 30 days for its written statement, which can go up to 120. In a summary suit it has to enter appearance and then ask for leave to defend. Watch for a counterclaim. You'll have to answer it on time.

6. Admission, denial and case management

   Each side admits or denies the other's documents on affidavit. The court then holds a case management hearing, frames the issues and gives dates for evidence and arguments.

7. Evidence and arguments

   Witness statements go in as affidavits and the witnesses are cross-examined. On the original side that often happens before a commissioner. Written arguments come in before oral ones.

8. Judgment, appeal, execution

   Once there's a decree, either side has 60 days to appeal. If the defendant still won't pay, you file for execution under Order XXI against its bank accounts, receivables or property.

If your claim rests on a written contract or a cheque, read our page on the summary suit to see whether the quicker Order XXXVII route is open to you.

How long it takes and what it costs in Kolkata

The disputes Kolkata businesses bring to us most

• Trading dues. Steel, iron, chemicals, textiles and FMCG goods sold on credit through Burrabazar and Canning Street, on running accounts, mostly without a signed contract. You win or lose these on the ledger and the delivery trail.
• Tea and jute contracts. The buyer says the grade was off, or the weight was short, or you were late lifting. Sale terms often point to trade customs or association rules, so we read those alongside the contract.
• Port, freight and logistics. Shippers, freight forwarders, clearing agents and transporters fighting over freight, detention, demurrage or cargo that turned up damaged. These spill into export-import law, and limitation needs a careful eye.
• IT and service contracts. A Salt Lake or New Town firm chasing milestone payments, or being told the software never worked. The email trail and the acceptance records usually settle it.
• Commercial leases. Shops, godowns and offices in central Kolkata used only for business. Section 2(1)(c)(vii) of the Act makes these lease disputes commercial disputes, so they belong in the commercial courts.
• Construction and engineering. Contractors and sub-contractors on industrial and infrastructure jobs around the city. Many of these contracts carry an arbitration clause, and that changes where you go.

Section 12A mediation, the Kolkata way

Unless your suit really needs urgent interim relief, you start with mediation under Section 12A. In West Bengal the application goes to the authority notified for it, which means the State Legal Services Authority or the District Legal Services Authority for your area. The Commercial Courts (Pre-Institution Mediation and Settlement) Rules, 2018 give the process three months. Both sides can agree to two more. Time spent in mediation doesn't count against limitation.

Plenty of Kolkata defaulters just don't turn up. The authority then issues a non-starter report and you're free to file. When they do come, a clean statement of account and the main documents on the table often get things moving. A settlement signed in this mediation has the status of an arbitral award. You can enforce it like a decree. No fresh suit needed.

Don't treat the urgency exception as a back door. The court looks at the plaint and the documents to decide whether the suit really contemplates urgent relief, as the Supreme Court explained in Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Keerthi (2023). A routine money claim dressed up as urgent can be thrown out. There's more on the process on our pre-institution mediation page.

What changes depending on who you are

• Suppliers and traders. Your case sits on purchase orders, invoices, delivery challans, lorry receipts and the ledger. Has the buyer confirmed the balance in writing, or in a GST reconciliation? Then a summary suit may be open to you.
• Service firms. Agencies, consultants and IT companies almost never have delivery challans. What you've got is the contract, the scope, the sign-offs, the emails where the client accepted the work, and the milestone invoices. Pull them together now, before the client's story changes.
• Lenders and investors. If your business lent money to another business, or paid an advance against future supplies, you sue on the loan papers, the bank transfers and any confirmations. If a bank or NBFC lent the money, the case may belong in the DRT instead. See drtadvocates.com.
• Startups. Founders tend to agree things over email and term sheets. You can still sue on those, but someone has to piece the terms together from the trail. Sort out your board authority before you file.
• MSMEs. A micro or small supplier registered under the MSMED Act, 2006 can claim interest at three times the RBI bank rate on late payments. It can also go to the West Bengal Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council under Section 18 instead of the civil court. Which is better depends on the buyer and the amount.
• Large companies. You'll run into internal approvals, written defences and counterclaims. Order XI disclosure bites harder, because a big company holds more paper and has to produce the bad documents along with the good.

The papers that decide Kolkata cases

If someone has sued your Kolkata business

The clock starts the day you're served. In a commercial suit you get 30 days to file a written statement, and the court can push that to 120 days at most, with costs. After 120 days the right is gone, and the case carries on with your side largely unheard. On the original side, the writ of summons tells you what's needed. Write down the date of service. Call us that day.

Served in a summary suit? The deadlines are tighter. You have 10 days to enter appearance. Once the plaintiff serves summons for judgment, you get another 10 days to apply for leave to defend, and that application has to show a real defence backed by documents. A bare denial won't do. In the defence files that reach Advocate B.K. Singh, the weak spot is usually the same one. The business disputed the bill only after it was sued, with nothing on record from when the goods came in.

Defending isn't only about saying no. You can file a counterclaim. You can challenge jurisdiction if the plaintiff picked the wrong court, or point out that it skipped Section 12A mediation. Our page on defending a commercial suit lays out the options, and the one on the 120-day limit for the written statement explains the timing.

Interim orders, before the trial is over

Some disputes can't wait years for a decree. A distributor keeps using your brand after you've terminated it. A tenant is clearing stock out of a godown. A debtor is selling the one asset it has left. The court can grant a temporary injunction under Order XXXIX, attach property before judgment under Order XXXVIII Rule 5, or appoint a receiver under Order XL to hold goods or collect income.

You don't get these just by asking. For an injunction you have to show a strong prima facie case (good enough on its face to deserve a trial), that the balance of convenience is on your side, and that you'll suffer harm money can't put right. Attachment before judgment needs proof that the defendant is about to dispose of or move its property to defeat a decree. A worry that it may not pay isn't enough. Kolkata courts want specifics. Dates, the asset, the evidence of removal.

A suit that genuinely asks for urgent interim relief can be filed without going to mediation first. That's exactly why the urgency has to be real, and visible on the face of the plaint. The tests are set out in more detail on our interim injunction page.

Collecting after the decree, in Kolkata or another state

Until it's executed, a decree is just paper. Under Order XXI the court can attach bank accounts, receivables, movable goods and immovable property, and it can call the judgment debtor in to disclose its assets on affidavit. In Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021), the Supreme Court said execution proceedings should ordinarily be decided within six months. It usually takes longer. Still, those directions help when a debtor is stalling.

Our Kolkata clients often need execution in another state. If a Kolkata decree has to be enforced against assets in Delhi, it's transferred to the Delhi court under Sections 38 and 39 of the Code of Civil Procedure and executed there. A Delhi decree against assets in West Bengal travels the other way. We work in both places, so the transfer and the execution at the far end stay with one team, and you don't start over with new lawyers. Our page on executing a decree explains how it works.

Mistakes we see, and what to do instead

• Thinking a Kolkata address means the High Court. Salt Lake, New Town, a good part of south Kolkata, and Howrah are all outside the original side limits. Match the court to the exact address before anyone drafts.
• Forgetting Clause 12 leave. If only part of the cause of action arose inside the limits, ask for leave when you file. You can't always fix it later.
• Letting limitation slip on a running account. The friendly buyer who keeps saying next month can still plead limitation when you finally sue. Get a written balance confirmation every year. Our guide on how long you have to recover unpaid dues explains how acknowledgments work.
• Mixing up the cheque case and the recovery case. A complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act for a bounced cheque runs separately from the civil suit, with its own tight dates. Plenty of businesses run both.
• Bringing documents in late. Order XI expects every relevant document with the plaint or the written statement. Anything later needs the court's leave and a decent reason.

How we work with clients in Kolkata

Most Kolkata clients start by sending us their papers online. The Delhi team checks limitation, value, forum and documents. Our associate counsel in Kolkata files and appears in the local courts. Advocate Sadhna Singh runs recovery and commercial court matters day to day, and Advocate B.K. Singh advises on strategy, particularly when the case has a Delhi side. We discuss fees at the first meeting and agree them in writing, stage by stage. Court fee, mediation fee and local costs are separate, and we tell you about them up front.

A few small things for this week. Dig out the contract and the first and last unpaid invoices, find the date of the last payment, and read the jurisdiction clause. Been served? Write the date down today. Our guide on interest on unpaid dues will help you work out what to claim.

If you'd like your contract, ledger and letters checked before you send a notice or answer a suit, send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.