In short. Got a Rs 3 lakh-plus payment or contract fight with a company in Mumbai? Your suit will most likely be heard by a commercial court inside the Bombay City Civil Court, or, if the claim is large, by the Commercial Division of the Bombay High Court. We've written this page for Delhi NCR businesses who have to sue in Mumbai or defend themselves there, and for Mumbai firms whose opponent sits in NCR. Mediation alone can eat five months. A contested suit commonly takes two years, sometimes more. Your first job is simple. Find the jurisdiction clause.
Is this your situation?
- Your Mumbai customer (a trader, a distributor, maybe a big retail house) is sitting on Rs 3 lakh or more of your money and has stopped picking up.
- You've just reread your purchase order. It says only the Mumbai courts will have jurisdiction.
- A courier dropped off papers from the Bombay City Civil Court, or worse, from the Bombay High Court.
- You won a decree in Delhi, Noida or Ghaziabad, but everything the other side owns is in Mumbai.
- A two-line email from a Mumbai NBFC, platform or brand owner ended your contract. No reasons given.
- A freight, shipping or export deal routed through Mumbai or Nhava Sheva went wrong, and everyone's blaming someone else.
- You run the Mumbai side of the deal. Your opponent and whatever it owns are up in Delhi NCR.
What we cover here, and how we run Mumbai matters
For a Mumbai commercial dispute, the work runs from Section 12A mediation through the suit, any appeal, and execution in the Mumbai courts. We're based in Delhi NCR, with offices in Dwarka, New Delhi and Vaishali, Ghaziabad. For Mumbai we work through an associate office. Mumbai counsel appear in the Bombay City Civil Court and the Bombay High Court, and we keep the strategy, the drafting review and the contact with you.
Most people who come to us about Mumbai are NCR businesses. A Noida electronics distributor is owed money by a Mumbai retailer. A Gurugram software company signed a master services agreement giving the Mumbai courts exclusive jurisdiction. A Ghaziabad manufacturer gets sued by a Mumbai supplier and has 30 days to respond. And sometimes it's the other way round: a Mumbai firm whose counterparty, and the counterparty's assets, sit in Delhi NCR. There we appear ourselves.
Below you'll find which Mumbai court hears what, where the Mumbai procedure parts ways with Delhi's, the court fee and time involved, the papers to get ready and the mistakes outsiders tend to make. It's general information. It isn't advice on your file.
Which Mumbai court hears your commercial dispute
Mumbai does things differently. The Bombay High Court has what lawyers call ordinary original civil jurisdiction, which just means a big suit starts life in the High Court itself, with no district court in between. For suits that arise within Greater Mumbai, the City Civil Court used to stop at Rs 1 crore. An amendment to the Bombay City Civil Court Act, 1948 took that up to Rs 10 crore from 28 January 2024. So a commercial suit under Rs 10 crore now goes to a commercial court in the City Civil Court, and a bigger one to the High Court's Commercial Division. Limits change. Look at the latest notifications first.
The figure that counts is what your plaint claims on the day it's filed, calculated as Section 12 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 says. You can't fix it afterwards. The Bombay High Court has ruled that interest left unquantified at filing can't be tacked on later to lift a suit above the limit. So one paragraph of your plaint, the valuation paragraph, picks the court. Plead Rs 9.5 crore and leave out the interest, and you're in the City Civil Court.
Outsiders often treat everything from Colaba to Panvel as Mumbai. The courts don't. Thane, Mira-Bhayandar, Kalyan and the Thane-side nodes of Navi Mumbai (Vashi, Nerul, Belapur, Airoli) belong to Thane district, while Panvel, Kharghar, Ulwe and the port at Nhava Sheva belong to Raigad. A dispute from any of those places goes to that district's designated Commercial Court. The City Civil Court down in south Mumbai won't touch it.
Mumbai forums in one table
| Your dispute | Where it probably goes | Check before you file |
|---|---|---|
| Greater Mumbai dispute worth Rs 3 lakh or more but within what the City Civil Court can hear | A commercial court in the Bombay City Civil Court | Whether the limit has moved again (it's Rs 10 crore since 28 January 2024) |
| Greater Mumbai dispute bigger than that | The Bombay High Court's Commercial Division, on its original side | How you've valued the claim in the plaint |
| Something that happened in Thane, Mira-Bhayandar, or between Vashi and Airoli | Thane district's designated Commercial Court | The defendant's place of work, and where the claim arose |
| Something that happened in Panvel, Kharghar or at Nhava Sheva | Raigad district's designated Commercial Court | The same two things |
| You're claiming against a ship, or it's a maritime claim | Bombay High Court, under its admiralty jurisdiction | What the Admiralty Act, 2017 asks of you |
| You lost before a commercial court or the Commercial Division | The Bombay High Court's Commercial Appellate Division | The 60 days Section 13 gives you |
| Your contract sends disputes to arbitration | An arbitral tribunal, with courts helping only at the margins | Which city the clause names as the seat |
Sue in Mumbai or in Delhi NCR? The jurisdiction question
Owed money by a Mumbai company? Before you book flights, check whether Mumbai is even necessary. Section 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure gives you a choice: the place where the defendant carries on business, or any place where some part of the cause of action arose. Take a Noida firm that accepted the order in Noida, shipped from a Gurugram warehouse and was to be paid into a bank in Delhi. It may well be able to sue in NCR. Mumbai stays open too.
Then the contract. Read it slowly. Mumbai drafting loves a line saying Mumbai courts alone will hear disputes, and our courts generally hold parties to it where Mumbai had jurisdiction to begin with. Ignore it, file in Delhi, and you'll probably get your plaint back. Advocate B.K. Singh always reads that clause alongside the arbitration clause when an NCR client brings in a Mumbai dispute, because a lot of Mumbai agreements push everything into arbitration seated in Mumbai, and courts then only appear at the edges.
Where you do have a choice, think about the money first. Where are the defendant's accounts and property? Then your witnesses, and which court's board is actually moving. Executing a Delhi decree in Mumbai is possible. It just needs a transfer to a Mumbai court under Section 39 of the Code of Civil Procedure first, whereas a Mumbai decree goes straight at Mumbai bank accounts. Our page on choosing which commercial court to approach sets out the general rules, and our page on the Delhi courts covers the Delhi side.
The law behind a Mumbai commercial case
Commercial Courts Act, 2015: Sections 2(1)(c), 3 and 12
The list of commercial disputes in Section 2(1)(c) is long. It takes in trade, imports and exports, admiralty and maritime claims, carriage of goods, construction, franchises, distribution, partnership and shareholder agreements, insurance and intellectual property. Under Section 3, a state can create district-level commercial courts, and that's allowed even where, as in Mumbai, the High Court has original jurisdiction. Valuation is in Section 12. The floor is Rs 3 lakh.
Section 12A, Commercial Courts Act, 2015
You have to mediate first unless the suit contemplates urgent interim relief. The Supreme Court's ruling in Patil Automation v. Rakheja Engineers (2022) made that binding for suits filed from 20 August 2022.
Bombay City Civil Court Act, 1948 and the Letters Patent
Between them, these draw the line inside Greater Mumbai between the City Civil Court and the original side of the High Court. In 2023 the legislature amended the Act to take the City Civil Court up to Rs 10 crore, with certain kinds of suits kept out.
Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, as amended for commercial suits
Under Order VIII Rule 1, the written statement can't come later than 120 days from service. Order XI demands full disclosure of documents. Order XIIIA lets the court give summary judgment, and Order XXXVII covers summary suits on written contracts, cheques and liquidated demands.
Maharashtra Court Fees Act, 1959
Court fee in Maharashtra comes from here. For a money suit it's ad valorem, a percentage of what you claim, but capped by the Act. Rates get revised. Look at the schedule in force when you file.
How a commercial suit moves in Mumbai
A money claim normally goes in this order. A few steps work differently in the City Civil Court and on the High Court's original side, and our Mumbai counsel take care of the local filing practice.
Check the clock and the clauses
Most money claims have to be filed within three years under the Limitation Act, 1963. A written acknowledgment or a part payment starts the period again. Read the jurisdiction and arbitration clauses before you spend a rupee on a notice.
Notice, then mediation
Send a legal notice. Then apply for Section 12A mediation to the legal services authority designated for Mumbai under the Commercial Courts (Pre-Institution Mediation and Settlement) Rules, 2018. It runs up to three months, and two more if both sides agree. That time doesn't count towards limitation.
Draft and file the plaint
The plaint comes with a statement of truth, a disclosure affidavit and copies of every document you rely on. On the High Court's original side, it's filed through the office of the Prothonotary and Senior Master under the Bombay High Court (Original Side) Rules. The registry will raise objections. They have to be cleared before the suit gets a number.
Service and pleadings
The defendant gets 30 days for its written statement, which the court can extend with costs to 120 days from service. In a summary suit it has to appear within 10 days, then ask for leave to defend within 10 days of service of summons for judgment.
Interim applications
Applications for an injunction, attachment before judgment or a deposit are heard early on. In the Commercial Division they can eat up a lot of court time. Draft them tight.
Case management, evidence and arguments
Once documents have been admitted or denied, the court holds a case management hearing, frames issues and sets a timetable. Evidence usually goes in on affidavit, followed by cross-examination, sometimes before a court commissioner.
Decree, appeal and execution
After judgment, either side has 60 days to appeal to the Commercial Appellate Division. The decree is executed under Order XXI, or sent to another court if that's where the assets are.
Our page on summary suits explains why they work so well for invoice and cheque claims against Mumbai trading houses.
Time and money for a Mumbai commercial case
| Stage | Typical time | Costs other than lawyer fees |
|---|---|---|
| Legal notice | 2 to 4 weeks | Courier or speed post charges |
| Section 12A mediation | Up to 3 months, plus 2 if extended | A fee under the 2018 Rules that rises with the claim (confirm the current figure) |
| Filing, and getting registry objections cleared | 2 to 6 weeks | Court fee as a percentage of the claim under the Maharashtra Court Fees Act, 1959, capped by the Act (confirm current rates) |
| Serving the defendant and getting its written statement | 1 to 4 months | Service charges, and costs if anyone takes extra time |
| Leave to defend or summary judgment | 3 to 8 months | Affidavits and compilations |
| Evidence and cross-examination | 6 to 18 months | A commissioner's fee, where one records the evidence |
| Arguments and judgment | 3 to 9 months | Certified copies |
| Execution | Six months is the target, but it often runs over | Process fee and the cost of attachment |
| Travel if you're in NCR | Evidence and the bigger hearings | Flights and hotels for witnesses. Most routine dates go ahead without you |
The commercial disputes that usually pull in Mumbai
- Trading and distribution. Mumbai is still a hub for textiles, chemicals, electronics and consumer goods. NCR suppliers sell to Mumbai traders on credit, and when it goes wrong it's usually an invoice claim that fits a summary suit.
- Financial services. A lot of NBFCs, fintech lenders and payment companies have their head offices in Mumbai. Their agreements with NCR merchants and borrowers almost always carry a Mumbai jurisdiction clause or an arbitration clause.
- Media, advertising and content. Mumbai production houses, agencies and broadcasters hire NCR vendors and creators. The fights are over deliverables, who owns the rights, and invoices nobody's paying.
- Shipping, freight and export. Freight forwarders, customs brokers and exporters working through Nhava Sheva and the Mumbai port argue about freight, demurrage and damaged cargo. A claim against the vessel itself goes under admiralty law.
- Pharma and chemicals. Contract manufacturing and supply deals between Mumbai brand owners and plants elsewhere, NCR and Haryana included.
- Brands and intellectual property. Trademark and copyright suits between Mumbai and NCR businesses. IP suits have their own rules on where to file, so check that first. Our page on trademark infringement suits explains them.
Section 12A mediation for a Mumbai claim
Unless your suit really needs urgent interim relief, you'll have to apply for pre-institution mediation before filing in Mumbai. Same as Delhi. The application goes to the legal services authority designated for the court where the suit would be filed. Notice goes to the other side. If it doesn't show up, you get a non-starter report and can file. Sessions can often be attended online, and that's a big help when you're in Noida and the dispute is in Mumbai.
A mediated settlement has the status of an arbitral award and is enforced like a decree. Across two cities that's worth a lot. If a Mumbai debtor agrees to pay in instalments and then stops, you go after it without filing a fresh suit.
Don't count on the urgency exception. It's narrow. In Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Keerthi (2023), the Supreme Court said courts will look at the plaint and documents to see whether urgent relief is genuinely needed, and won't accept an interim prayer added just to dodge mediation. Our page on pre-institution mediation goes through the process.
Where Mumbai practice differs from Delhi
The Act is the same everywhere in India. The courts aren't. The Bombay High Court's original side runs on its own Original Side Rules, with registry objections, a separate filing department and listing habits that confuse anyone who hasn't grown up with them. Mumbai counsel handle this every day. That's why we file through associate counsel, instead of sending a Delhi lawyer to learn the system at your expense.
Summary suits are part of Mumbai's commercial culture. Trading houses have used Order XXXVII for decades on bills, cheques and acknowledged accounts, and the judges are used to deciding leave to defend on the papers. For an NCR supplier holding a clean invoice claim against a Mumbai trader, a summary suit is often the obvious route, and it's usually where we'd start.
Mumbai litigation costs more. Noticeably more than an NCR district court. The courts there also take costs seriously against a party that drags its feet. Interim applications get argued in detail, sometimes for hours. As an NCR client, you'll be asked for documents quickly and to sign affidavits at short notice, often electronically first and in original later.
How it changes depending on your business
- Suppliers and manufacturers in NCR. Can you prove the Mumbai buyer received and accepted the goods? Collect signed challans, lorry receipts, e-way bills and the GST trail. If you can't, the buyer will say you short-supplied, and it'll be your word against theirs.
- Service firms and IT companies. That MSA your Mumbai client sent over probably limits its liability and sends any fight to arbitration. Look at the cap, and at how notices must be given, before putting a number on damages.
- Lenders. Lent money to a Mumbai business as part of a mercantile deal? As a private lender you can bring a commercial suit. Banks and financial institutions with Rs 20 lakh or more at stake normally use the Debts Recovery Tribunal instead.
- Startups. Deals with Mumbai investors and platforms often live in term sheets, email threads and WhatsApp groups. Nobody signed anything. You can still prove the contract, provided you've kept the records and file them with a certificate under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.
- MSMEs. Registered as a micro or small enterprise? The MSMED Act, 2006 gives you interest at three times the RBI bank rate. And the Facilitation Council you approach is the one where you, the supplier, are located. For a Noida or Faridabad unit, that's the council at home, not Mumbai's.
- Large companies. Big companies sued in Mumbai tend to lose time in their own approval chain. Legal, finance, the board. Start from day 120 after service and plan backwards.
What to send us before a Mumbai filing
The contract
- The signed agreement, purchase order or term sheet, with all annexures
- The jurisdiction and arbitration clauses, marked
- Emails where the order or the rates were accepted
- Any amendments, side letters or rate revisions
Performance and delivery
- Invoices showing GST details
- Delivery challans, lorry receipts and e-way bills
- For exports or imports, bills of lading, shipping bills and freight invoices
- For services, completion certificates or acceptance emails
The money trail
- Your ledger for the Mumbai party, reconciled
- Bank statements showing part payments
- Balance confirmations, or messages where they admit the dues
- Cheques and return memos, if you have them
Formal papers
- Board resolution authorising the suit and naming who signs
- Certificate of incorporation, or the partnership deed
- Udyam certificate, if you're claiming MSME interest
- Section 63 certificates for the electronic records
An invented example: a Noida distributor and a Mumbai retailer
This example is made up. A Noida company distributes kitchen appliances to retail chains. A Mumbai retailer with stores across Maharashtra buys on 60 days' credit, then stops paying after its management changes. Rs 1.4 crore is left unpaid. There's no arbitration clause. But the distribution agreement does give the Mumbai courts exclusive jurisdiction, and over the past year the retailer's own finance team has emailed across two balance confirmations. That detail matters later.
Because of the clause, suing in Noida would be risky. So the distributor applies for mediation in Mumbai. The retailer doesn't turn up. On the strength of the non-starter report, Mumbai counsel file a summary suit in the commercial court of the Bombay City Civil Court, because Rs 1.4 crore falls within that court's current limit. Those two balance confirmations also work as acknowledgments under Section 18 of the Limitation Act. Limitation isn't an issue.
The retailer applies for leave to defend and says some stock was defective. It never said so in writing before the suit. On facts like those, a court may refuse leave, or grant it only if the amount is deposited. The distributor's directors come to Mumbai for one hearing. Mumbai counsel and our Delhi NCR office handle the rest. What decides it is the paperwork, not who's arguing.
When your NCR business is sued in Mumbai
If your NCR business is served with summons from a Mumbai court, treat the date of service as day one of a 120-day countdown. Your written statement is due in 30 days. With costs and a good reason you can get more time, but never past day 120. After that the right to file is lost, and the case goes ahead on the plaintiff's story alone.
Ask first whether Mumbai is even the right court. A Mumbai supplier might rely on an invoice footer saying only Mumbai courts have jurisdiction. But a term printed on an invoice after the deal was struck isn't automatically part of the contract. Also check whether the plaintiff went through mediation, and whether an arbitration clause applies. Raise these straight away.
In a summary suit, you file an appearance within 10 days of service, and then apply for leave to defend within 10 days of service of summons for judgment. Your affidavit has to show a real defence, backed by documents from the time: quality complaints, rejection notes, a disputed statement of account. In the Mumbai defence files that reach Advocate B.K. Singh, the gap is usually the same. The NCR company complained by phone and never wrote anything down. And if the plaintiff is trying to freeze your accounts, read our page on interim injunctions.
Executing a decree in Mumbai, or an NCR decree against a Mumbai party
A Mumbai decree gets executed in Mumbai, under Order XXI of the Code of Civil Procedure. Bank accounts, money owed to the debtor, stock, property. All of it can be reached. Push early for the judgment debtor to file an affidavit listing its assets, something the Supreme Court backed in Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021), where it also said execution ought ordinarily to wrap up within six months.
Now flip it. Your decree came from Delhi, Noida or Ghaziabad, and the debtor's assets are in Mumbai. You go back to the court that passed it and ask for a transfer under Section 39 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to whichever Mumbai court has the assets within its reach. That court treats it as its own decree. Nothing unusual about it. Still, each transfer costs you weeks, so find the money before you pick the court. Our page on execution of decrees explains attachment and sale.
What if the debtor is a company with big, undisputed debts and clearly no means to pay them? The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal and an insolvency petition might be worth a thought. Be clear about what that is, though. It's a process run for all the creditors together, not a way of collecting your bill (see ncltlawyers.in).
Mistakes NCR businesses make with Mumbai disputes
- Filing in Delhi in the teeth of an exclusive Mumbai clause. The plaint can come back months later, and you start over in Mumbai with less limitation left.
- Forgetting the arbitration clause. A lot of Mumbai agreements route disputes to arbitration. File a suit anyway and the defendant can apply to have it referred there (that route is covered on arbitrationlawyer.in).
- Valuing the claim low to stay in a lower court. Be honest about value. You can't add unpleaded interest later to change the forum, and an under-valued claim caps what you can recover.
- Holding up the written statement for internal sign-off. Day 120 won't move. The approvals have to fit inside it.
- Couriering originals without keeping copies. Keep a scanned set and a list of what went out. Originals are needed at evidence, not at filing.
Working with us on a Mumbai matter
Clients with Mumbai matters usually meet us first at Dwarka or Vaishali, or on a video call. We go through the contract, the invoices and every email and letter, decide where and how to proceed, and only then brief our associate counsel in Mumbai, who file and appear. Advocate Sadhna Singh keeps the recovery files moving from day to day. We talk money at that first meeting. Our fee, and the Mumbai counsel's, is written down stage by stage. Court fee, mediation fee and travel come on top, and you'll hear about them before you pay any of it.
Before the week's out, dig out the jurisdiction and arbitration clauses. Note two dates: your oldest unpaid invoice, and the last time they acknowledged the debt. Pull the delivery papers together. Served already? Write down the date. Our guide on how specified value is worked out matters more in Mumbai than most places, because there the value picks the court.
If you'd like your contract and correspondence with the Mumbai party looked at before you file or reply, send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through our contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Which court hears commercial suits in Mumbai?
Inside Greater Mumbai it depends on size. Up to Rs 10 crore (the City Civil Court's limit since 28 January 2024), you're in a commercial court of the Bombay City Civil Court. Above it, the Bombay High Court's Commercial Division. Thane and Raigad are separate districts with their own designated commercial courts.
Can I file against a Mumbai company in Delhi?
Often, yes. Some part of the cause of action has to have arisen in Delhi, and your contract mustn't reserve disputes for Mumbai's courts alone. Where it does, expect a Delhi judge to return the plaint. Check both the jurisdiction clause and any arbitration clause first.
Do I need Section 12A mediation for a Mumbai commercial suit?
Yes, unless you're seeking urgent interim relief. You apply to the legal services authority designated under the 2018 Rules. It lasts up to three months, extendable by two. Skip it and the plaint can be rejected.
Will I have to travel to Mumbai?
Not for most dates. Mumbai counsel attend the routine hearings, and mediation can often be done online. Directors or witnesses usually do need to travel for cross-examination, and sometimes for a big interim hearing.
How much court fee does a Mumbai recovery suit need?
Maharashtra charges ad valorem court fee under the Maharashtra Court Fees Act, 1959, up to a ceiling set in the Act. The figure depends on what you claim, so check the current schedule before filing. Lawyer fees are separate and agreed in writing.
My Noida company got summons from a Mumbai court. How long do I have?
Thirty days from service for the written statement. With costs, that can stretch to 120 days, and no further. In a summary suit, you enter appearance within 10 days and then seek leave to defend. Miss these and you could face a decree without any trial at all.
Can a Delhi decree be enforced in Mumbai?
Yes. Under Section 39 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the court that passed it can transfer it to the Mumbai court with jurisdiction over the assets. The Mumbai court then executes it as if it were its own.
Where does an appeal in a Mumbai commercial case go?
You appeal to the Bombay High Court's Commercial Appellate Division. Time limit? 60 days, under Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act. Beyond that lies the Supreme Court, by special leave petition, ordinarily within 90 days.