Delhi District Commercial Courts: Where Business Suits Up to Rs 2 Crore Are Heard

What these courts actually are

These are District Judges' courts, designated under Section 3 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 to deal with commercial disputes. In Delhi their range is Rs 3 lakh up to Rs 2 crore. Go above Rs 2 crore and the suit belongs to the Delhi High Court's Commercial Division, on the original side, because the Delhi High Court Act, 1966 gives the High Court original civil jurisdiction past that figure.

On the cause list you'll usually see it as "District Judge (Commercial Court)", with a number and a district, say a court at Saket for the South district. Every judicial district in Delhi has at least one. The busy ones have several. They don't take ordinary family, rent or property title cases. They take business disputes, and they run them under the tighter procedure Parliament added to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) for commercial suits.

That tighter procedure is why any of this matters to you. Forget the slow civil suit people remember from the 1990s. Your plaint has to carry every document you rely on, the defendant gets 120 days at the very outside for a written statement, and the judge is supposed to fix a timetable at a case management hearing. Cases still get delayed. But both sides now work under stricter rules.

Which Delhi court complex hears your case

How territory picks the court

Inside Delhi, each district court's area follows police station limits. So 'which court?' really means 'which police station area matters?' Section 20 CPC lets you sue where the defendant lives or carries on business, or where the cause of action arose, wholly or in part. In a money claim the cause of action can arise where the contract was made, where the goods were delivered, where payment was due, or where the services were done.

People usually have more choice than they think. Take a Rohini supplier who delivered to a buyer in Okhla, with payment due into a bank branch in Pitampura. Both Rohini and Saket may be open. Choose the court where your facts are strongest and your proof on territory is clean, and plead it properly. A sloppy jurisdiction paragraph invites an objection. Then your first few dates go on arguing about it.

Read your contract for a jurisdiction clause. One saying "courts at New Delhi alone shall have jurisdiction" is usually enforced if that court has some link to the deal, and it can push the suit into Patiala House even when nothing else happened there. A clause naming a city outside Delhi, Mumbai or Ghaziabad for instance, can take the case out of Delhi entirely. Ask Advocate B.K. Singh which complex to file in and he'll first turn over your purchase order and invoice. Often the jurisdiction clause is sitting in small print on the back of the invoice. There's a fuller explanation on our page on which commercial court will hear your case.

Is it commercial, and is it big enough?

Section 2(1)(c) of the Commercial Courts Act defines a "commercial dispute". The list is long. It takes in ordinary transactions of merchants and traders, export and import, carriage of goods, construction and infrastructure contracts, partnership and shareholders' agreements, franchising, distribution and licensing, intellectual property, insurance, and leases of immovable property used exclusively in trade or commerce, among others. Most fights between businesses over unpaid invoices or service fees fit.

The "specified value" floor is Rs 3 lakh, under Section 2(1)(i) as amended in 2018. Section 12 sets out the method: a money suit is valued at the amount claimed plus interest up to the day of filing, and a property suit at market value. That's how Rs 2.6 lakh of principal becomes more than Rs 3 lakh with pre-suit interest, and ends up in the commercial court. The same arithmetic can push Rs 1.9 crore over Rs 2 crore and into the High Court. So do the sums first. Drafting comes after.

Two practical points about the Rs 2 crore line. One, it's a figure under the Delhi High Court Act, and it can change. In July 2026 the Full Court of the Delhi High Court was reported to have recommended raising the district courts' limit to Rs 10 crore (district bar associations had asked for Rs 20 crore), and the Delhi High Court Bar Association has opposed it. As of October 2026 we don't know of any change in force. Check the current limit before you file. Two, if the value shifts during the suit, say because the claim is amended, the court may have to return the plaint for filing in the right court.

The rules you'll be working under

A commercial suit in a Delhi district court, start to finish

This is how a money claim usually goes. Urgent cases (injunctions, attachment) skip mediation and move faster at the start.

1. Send a legal notice

   The law doesn't require one. We'd still send it. A clear notice with the amount, the invoices and a short deadline often gets you paid, or at least gets a written reply, and that reply shows you the defence that's coming. See our page on a legal notice for recovery.

2. Apply for pre-institution mediation

   You apply to the District Legal Services Authority for the district where you'll file, on the prescribed form, with the fee. It sends notice to the other side and fixes a date before a mediator. If they don't show up, you get a non-starter report. That report goes in with your plaint.

3. Mediate, or close it

   Mediation gets three months, and two more if both sides agree. A settlement is signed and has the status of an arbitral award, so you can enforce it. If talks fail, the mediator issues a failure report.

4. Draft the plaint with every document

   The plaint sets out the facts, the cause of action, why this court has territory, the value and the court fee. With it go a statement of truth, a list of documents and an affidavit of documents under Order XI. Work out interest, both pre-suit and pendente lite (while the suit runs), and plead it.

5. File, pay court fee, clear scrutiny

   Most Delhi district courts take filings electronically, plus physical copies where the court wants them. The filing section checks the court fee, the 12A report, the vakalatnama and the documents. It raises objections. You cure them. Then the suit gets a CS (Comm) number and is listed before the District Judge (Commercial Court).

6. Summons and written statement

   If satisfied, the court issues summons. The defendant has 30 days, 120 at most, for its written statement, its own documents and any counter-claim. You file a replication if one is needed.

7. Admission and denial, then case management

   Each side admits or denies the other's documents on affidavit. At the case management hearing the judge frames issues, fixes evidence dates and sets a deadline for arguments. Evidence usually goes in by affidavit. Cross-examination follows.

8. Arguments, judgment, decree

   Written arguments come first, then oral. The judge is expected to pronounce judgment within 90 days of arguments closing. A money decree usually carries interest and costs.

What Section 12A mediation looks like in the Delhi districts

In Delhi, pre-institution mediation goes through the legal services authorities. If you'll file in a district court, you apply to that district's District Legal Services Authority, whose mediation centre is usually in the same court complex. The application names the parties, describes the claim in a few lines and attaches the basic papers. A first date normally comes within a few weeks.

Lots of defendants simply don't come. Two or three notices go out, nobody answers, and the Authority issues a non-starter report. Some turn up once to ask for time and then vanish. Don't write mediation off as a formality, though. A fair number of supplier claims settle right here, often for payment in instalments, because the buyer would rather bargain than face a commercial suit with interest and costs on top.

Time spent in mediation is left out when limitation is calculated. That helps if your three years are nearly up. But don't leave it to the last month. The exclusion covers only the mediation period, and you still have to file promptly once the report arrives. Our page on mandatory mediation before a commercial suit sets out the rules and the exceptions.

How long it takes and what it costs

Court fee in a Delhi district commercial court

In Delhi, court fee on a money suit is ad valorem. It's a percentage of the claim, on a sliding scale under the Court Fees Act, 1870 as amended for Delhi. You pay it on the full value, pre-suit interest included, and you pay it up front by e-stamp or e-court fee. On a bigger claim it's real money. Factor it in when you decide whether to sue.

There's no special "commercial" court fee. A recovery suit pays on the same schedule in the district court and in the High Court. If the claim settles during mediation in court, Section 16 of the Court Fees Act allows a refund of court fee in certain settlement cases, so ask about it when the compromise is recorded. Our guide on court fee for a recovery suit in Delhi shows how it's calculated. Check the current figure before filing.

Papers to collect before you file

What the judge checks on day one

Before summons go out, the District Judge (Commercial Court) usually checks three things on the first date. Is the suit within the court's value and territory? Has Section 12A been complied with? Are the plaint and documents in order? If there's no 12A report and no genuine urgency, the plaint can be rejected under Order VII Rule 11 CPC. Delhi district judges have done exactly that, many times.

If you've asked for urgent relief so you can skip mediation, the court reads the plaint and the application to see whether the urgency is real. In Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Keerthi (2023) the Supreme Court said this has to be judged from the plaint and documents. A token injunction prayer won't do. Where the urgency looks like a device to dodge mediation, the court can refuse to entertain the suit.

Judges notice the statement of truth too. Someone who actually knows the facts must sign it, and it shouldn't read like a template. When Advocate B.K. Singh goes over a plaint before filing, he checks that every document the plaint mentions really is in the list of documents. A missing document is the commonest objection. It's also the hardest to fix later.

Summary suits and urgent orders

Does your claim rest on a written contract, an invoice accepted in writing, a cheque or a promissory note? Then a summary suit under Order XXXVII CPC is often quicker. The defendant has to enter appearance within 10 days of service, and after you serve the summons for judgment it gets another 10 days to apply for leave to defend. A frivolous defence won't get leave, as the tests in IDBI Trusteeship v. Hubtown (2016) make clear. Delhi's district commercial courts hear a great many of these. See our page on the summary suit.

Sometimes the other side starts emptying its godown, selling its only property or shutting its office. You can then ask for attachment before judgment under Order XXXVIII Rule 5 CPC. You'll need an affidavit showing it's about to dispose of or remove property to defeat a decree. A general worry isn't enough. Injunctions under Order XXXIX, say to stop misuse of your brand or wrongful encashment of a security, are also heard by the district commercial courts for suits within their value. There's more on urgent injunctions.

If you've been sued in a Delhi district commercial court

First, note the day the summons reached you. In a regular commercial suit the written statement is due in 30 days. More time can be allowed with costs. Not beyond 120 days from service, though, and that cap is strict. Companies that leave summons in a drawer for four months lose their defence, and the court then often decrees the suit on the plaint and documents alone.

A summary suit is even quicker. Appearance within 10 days, then 10 days after the summons for judgment to seek leave to defend. Whatever you file has to go through the plaintiff's documents one by one, admitting or denying each, with reasons. The commercial rules let a bare, general denial count as an admission. If the plaintiff owes you something too, raise it as a counter-claim in the same suit. Whether that counter-claim also needs Section 12A mediation has been argued in the courts, so get advice early and check the current position. The 120-day written statement limit and leave to defend each have their own page.

How it plays out for different businesses

• Suppliers and traders. Invoice claims make up most of the work here, from traders in Chandni Chowk, Karol Bagh, Naraina, Okhla and Bawana. Expect the buyer to say "goods not received" or "goods defective". Tidy delivery proof and GST records are your answer.
• Service firms and IT vendors. Everything turns on showing the work was done and accepted. A milestone approval or a sign-off email beats the headline value of the contract. So do timesheets.
• Lenders and people who gave business advances. Trade advances and inter-corporate deposits count as commercial disputes. If there's a written loan agreement or acknowledgment, a summary suit is on the table. Bank loans are different. They usually go to the Debts Recovery Tribunal.
• Startups. Plenty of founders have nothing signed, just a long email thread. That can be enough, as long as the emails show the agreed price, the work done and that it was accepted. Every email you rely on needs a Section 63 BSA certificate.
• Micro and small enterprises. MSMED Act, 2006 registration lets you claim interest at three times the RBI bank rate on late payments (Sections 15 to 17). You could instead go to the MSME Facilitation Council under Section 18. Decide which before filing. Doing both gets messy.
• Larger companies. Here the trouble is internal: board approvals, sign-offs, and documents scattered across departments. Order XI disclosure applies in full, so gather everything before you file rather than after the defendant asks.

Mistakes we keep seeing in Delhi district filings

• Wrong court by value. Add interest to a Rs 1.95 crore principal and you may well be in the High Court. Work out the value as on the filing date.
• Skipping mediation with no real urgency. File without a 12A report, with only a token injunction prayer, and the plaint risks rejection.
• Holding back documents. Under Order XI, a document in your power and possession that you didn't file with the plaint may be kept out later unless you have strong reasons.
• Ignoring limitation. Most money claims have to be filed within three years under the Limitation Act, 1963, counted from the due date. A written acknowledgment or part payment starts the clock again. See time limit to recover unpaid dues.
• Shaky authority to sue. If an employee signs the plaint with no board resolution or power of attorney, expect an objection. It can cost months.
• No address check. If the defendant has moved, summons come back unserved. Look up the GST portal and MCA records for the current address first.

After judgment: appeal and execution

Whoever loses can appeal. A judgment of a District Judge (Commercial Court) in Delhi goes to the Delhi High Court's Commercial Appellate Division under Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act, within 60 days. Interim orders are trickier. Section 8 of the Act bars civil revision against a commercial court's interlocutory orders, which leaves an appeal where Order XLIII CPC permits one, or, in a narrow class of cases, a petition under Article 227 of the Constitution. Our page on the Delhi High Court Commercial Appellate Division has the detail.

Decrees don't pay themselves. Execution under Order XXI CPC is filed in the same court. You can seek attachment of the judgment debtor's bank accounts, receivables, vehicles or property, and ask that it disclose its assets on affidavit. The Supreme Court in Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021) said execution petitions should ordinarily be decided within six months. In the execution files Advocate B.K. Singh sees, the decree holder usually has no idea where the debtor's money is. We begin with the bank details on old payments, then GST records and MCA filings. See execution of decree.

When this isn't the right court

Not every Delhi business dispute belongs here. If your contract has an arbitration clause, the other side can ask the court to refer the matter to arbitration under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Court applications in support of arbitration run on a different track, which we explain on arbitrationlawyer.in. Claims above Rs 2 crore go to the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court. And if the debtor is a company that owes more than Rs 1 crore and has plainly defaulted, insolvency may be an option, though it serves a different purpose from recovery.

Sometimes the honest advice is don't sue. If the debtor has shut down, owns nothing and the amount is modest, you may just lose the court fee and the time. A smaller settlement paid now can be worth more than a full decree you can't execute. We tell clients this more often than they expect.

If you'd like your contract, invoices and emails looked at before you pick a Delhi court, share them with Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.