A commercial dispute in Mumbai above ₹10 crore goes to the Commercial Division of the Bombay High Court; below that, to the commercial court at the City Civil Court. Either way, you must usually attempt pre-institution mediation first, and the statutory court fee is capped at ₹3 lakh while the real expense lies in counsel, interim applications and adverse costs.
Which court hears your dispute
The forum turns on two numbers: whether the claim meets the “specified value” of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, and whether it crosses the Bombay City Civil Court’s ₹10 crore ceiling.
| Situation | Forum in Mumbai | Why |
| Commercial dispute, specified value ₹3 lakh or more, claim up to ₹10 crore | Designated commercial court at the Bombay City Civil Court | The City Civil Court’s pecuniary limit rose from ₹1 crore to ₹10 crore, effective 28 January 2024 |
| Commercial dispute above ₹10 crore | Commercial Division, Bombay High Court (original side) | Above the City Civil Court ceiling; Sections 4 and 7 of the Act |
| Appeal from a decree or appealable order | Commercial Appellate Division, Bombay High Court | Section 13 of the Act |
| Commercial dispute below ₹3 lakh | Ordinary civil court; the Act’s CPC amendments do not apply | The Bombay High Court has read Section 16 literally |
Check the threshold you are quoting. Older articles still say the specified value is ₹1 crore. The 2018 amendment cut it to ₹3 lakh, so small and mid-sized businesses fall inside the Act’s faster, stricter procedure.
Check that the dispute is “commercial”. Section 2(1)(c) lists the qualifying categories. In one reported Bombay High Court matter a defendant argued that a debt assignment was commercial to push the suit into the Commercial Division; the court rejected it as a delay tactic and imposed ₹5 lakh costs.
The process, step by step
The Act replaces much of the ordinary CPC timetable with fixed deadlines and front-loaded disclosure. The sequence below is the one a Mumbai commercial suit normally follows.
- Preserve evidence and send a legal notice. Secure contracts, emails, invoices, delivery records and board approvals before the notice. A notice is not a statutory precondition for most commercial suits, but it fixes the default date and tests the other side’s response.
- Attempt pre-institution mediation (Section 12A). Unless the suit genuinely contemplates urgent interim relief, you must exhaust mediation first. The time spent in mediation is excluded from limitation. See the next section.
- File the plaint with a statement of truth and every document you rely on. Commercial pleadings are verified by an affidavit under Order VI Rule 15A, and documents you omit can be shut out later. Pay the court fee on the correct valuation.
- Serve summons and track the written statement deadline. The defendant has 30 days, extendable up to an outer limit of 120 days. Courts have treated that outer limit as strict, so a defendant that misses it loses the right to file.
- Attend the case management hearing. The court fixes dates for admission and denial of documents, framing of issues, evidence and arguments. Missing these dates now carries costs.
- Consider summary judgment (Order XIII-A). Either side can ask the court to decide without trial where the claim or defence has no real prospect of success. The Bombay High Court has described this test as stringent and refuses it wherever triable issues exist, for example in a copyright and passing-off suit.
- Seek interim relief where needed. Injunctions, attachment before judgment and deposit orders are heard on notice of motion. Delay in applying can weaken an urgency argument.
- Trial, arguments and judgment. Evidence is usually led on affidavit with cross-examination before a court-appointed commissioner. The Act aims for judgment within 90 days of the conclusion of arguments.
- Appeal within 60 days. Appeals from decrees and appealable orders go to the Commercial Appellate Division under Section 13, and the appellate court looks hard at long delay.
- Execution. A decree is enforced through the same court. Plan this at the start: assets, bank accounts and guarantees decide whether a win is worth collecting.
Section 12A mediation: where the law stands in October 2026
Section 12A is the single most litigated gateway in commercial suits. A suit that does not contemplate urgent interim relief cannot be instituted until the plaintiff has exhausted pre-institution mediation, and a suit filed in breach risks rejection of the plaint under Order VII Rule 11 CPC.
| Decision | What it settled |
| Patil Automation v. Rakheja Engineers (Supreme Court, August 2022) | Section 12A is mandatory, not a procedural formality, and operates prospectively from 20 August 2022 |
| Yamini Manohar v. T.K.D. Keerthi (Supreme Court, 2023; reported (2024) 5 SCC 815) | The court examines the plaint, documents and facts to see if urgency is genuine; a bare prayer for interim relief does not exempt the suit |
| Dhanbad Fuels v. Union of India (2025 INSC 696, Supreme Court, 15 May 2025) | The test is whether the suit contemplates urgent interim relief, not whether the relief is finally granted; leave of court is not needed to file without mediation |
| High Point Supply Co. v. Agati Healthcare (Bombay High Court, Commercial First Appeal 15 of 2026) | A plaint disclosing genuine urgency was wrongly rejected; the suit was restored |
| Bombay High Court ruling of 21 September 2026 | A commercial court cannot reject a plaint under Order VII Rule 11 for non-compliance without first examining the urgency plea holistically |
What this means in practice
- For plaintiffs: plead the specific facts that make relief urgent (an imminent termination, invocation of a bank guarantee, dissipation of assets, ongoing infringement). Boilerplate language invites an Order VII Rule 11 application. Delay alone does not defeat urgency in the Bombay High Court’s recent approach, but unexplained delay still hurts.
- For defendants: challenge the urgency plea early. Both the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court warn that urgency must not be a mask to avoid mediation, but the court is limited to testing whether the plea is genuine, not weighing the merits of the injunction.
- If interim relief is granted: the Bombay High Court, in a decision of 21 August 2026 involving Guiness Securities and the National Stock Exchange, treated the grant of ad-interim or interim relief as confirming that the suit falls within the exemption.
- Mediated settlements: a settlement reached under Section 12A is dealt with under Sections 27 and 28 of the Mediation Act, 2023.
Time limits. Mediation has historically had to be completed within three months, extendable by two months with consent. The Mediation Act, 2023 changed parts of the framework, so confirm the period and the authority that conducts mediation before you apply.
What commercial litigation costs
The statutory court fee is the smallest and most predictable item. The costs that surprise clients are professional fees across many hearings, and the risk of paying the other side’s costs.
| Cost head | What to expect | Watch for |
| Court fee on the plaint | Ad valorem under the Maharashtra Court-Fees Act, 1959, capped at ₹3,00,000 on a plaint or memorandum of appeal | The cap does not stretch across unrelated claims: the Bombay High Court has held that distinct claims or plaintiffs in one suit each pay separate fees under Section 18 |
| Court fee on declaratory or mixed reliefs | Fractions of the ad valorem fee, rising to the full fee if possession is also sought | Undervaluing relief invites an objection and delay |
| Appeal fee | Ad valorem on the subject matter; a Bombay High Court Nagpur Bench ruling held an appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration Act is chargeable ad valorem, not at the fixed ₹25 fee | Appellants who pay a fixed fee by mistake face office objections |
| Counsel and solicitor fees | Varies widely by forum, seniority and number of hearings; agree a stage-wise or capped structure in writing | Interim applications multiply hearings in the Commercial Division |
| Experts, commissioners, translation | Billed separately | Budget for cross-examination before a commissioner |
| Adverse costs | Costs follow the event, and the Act contemplates actual costs, not token amounts | See below |
Costs follow the event. Section 35 of the CPC, as amended for commercial disputes, makes the loser pay the winner’s reasonable costs unless the court records reasons otherwise. The Bombay High Court has imposed substantial costs in commercial suits: ₹25 lakh on a financial company for vexatious applications, ₹5 lakh each on defendants in a trademark case, and ₹2 lakh each on applicants whose attempts to reject a suit delayed it. It has also trimmed excessive orders: a Division Bench cut a ₹4.5 lakh costs order to ₹50,000, reasoning that Section 35-B costs are compensatory, not punitive.
A budgeting rule we use. Add up professional fees for the full case, then add a reserve equal to the realistic costs exposure if you lose a contested interim application. Clients who budget only for the plaint stage are the ones who abandon good cases midway.
We do not publish fixed lawyer-fee figures because they vary by matter. Ask any firm for a written fee estimate that separates the pre-suit, interim, trial and appeal stages.
Litigation or arbitration
If your contract has an arbitration clause, the choice is made for you. If it has an exclusive Mumbai jurisdiction clause, the factors below decide whether litigation is the better route.
| Factor | Commercial court (Mumbai) | Arbitration seated in Mumbai |
| Interim relief | Injunctions and deposits from a court with coercive power | Section 9 court relief is available, and the Bombay High Court has allowed even an unsuccessful party to seek it, for example to keep a bank guarantee alive in a pending dispute |
| Pre-suit hurdle | Section 12A mediation unless genuinely urgent | None under the Commercial Courts Act, though the contract may require negotiation first |
| Challenge to the result | Appeal on facts and law | Narrow: Section 34 does not allow re-appreciation of evidence, and the Bombay High Court has repeatedly refused to substitute its view for the tribunal’s |
| Cost certainty | Capped court fee; costs follow the event | Tribunal fees and institutional fees, plus Maharashtra’s stamp duty on awards |
| Confidentiality | Open court | Private |
The stamp duty point is new and often missed. A 2026 commentary reported that Maharashtra now charges ad valorem stamp duty on arbitral awards, putting duty on a ₹100 crore award at roughly ₹27.62 lakh, against a court fee that stops at ₹3 lakh. Whether the levy survives challenge is open, and commentators expect petitions in the Bombay High Court. Ask your advisers for the current position before you pick a Mumbai seat.
Our view. Choose litigation where you expect to need a fast, enforceable injunction against a counterparty within India, and where the capped court fee matters. Choose arbitration where confidentiality or a specialist tribunal outweighs the narrow right of challenge.
Mistakes that cost commercial litigants the most
These are the patterns that recur in Mumbai commercial suits, and each follows from the rules above.
- Treating Section 12A as a box to tick. Filing first and arguing urgency later is the commonest route to an Order VII Rule 11 application. Decide at the outset whether the urgency is real, and document why.
- Quoting the old ₹1 crore threshold. A suit valued at ₹5 lakh to ₹1 crore is still a commercial suit if the dispute qualifies, and the strict timelines apply.
- Filing in the wrong court. Since January 2024 a claim under ₹10 crore belongs in the City Civil Court. A suit pending in the High Court below that value has been transferred, and the High Court has declined to entertain an application to raise the valuation after losing jurisdiction.
- Holding back documents. The Act expects the plaintiff to file the documents it relies on with the plaint. Late documents need an explanation.
- Missing the written statement limit. The 120-day outer limit is treated as strict.
- Over-using interim applications. Courts have penalised vexatious applications with heavy costs, noting that the Act is not anti-defendant but aims at quick disposal.
- Assuming summary judgment is a shortcut. It is granted only where there is no real prospect of success, and High Courts have set aside summary decrees where facts were disputed. Note the split on a related point: the Bombay High Court has permitted a summary judgment application after a summary suit was converted to a commercial suit, while the Delhi High Court has held the bar in Order XIII-A Rule 1(3) continues to apply.
- Ignoring enforcement. Winning against a company with no attachable assets gains little; map assets before filing.
Pre-filing checklist
- Check the contract for an arbitration, jurisdiction or escalation clause
- Confirm the dispute fits a Section 2(1)(c) category and exceeds ₹3 lakh
- Decide the forum: City Civil Court up to ₹10 crore, High Court above
- Decide whether urgent interim relief is genuinely needed; if not, start Section 12A mediation
- Check limitation, remembering that mediation time is excluded
- Collect every document you rely on and prepare the statement of truth
- Value each relief and compute the court fee; check for separate fees on distinct claims
- Map the defendant’s assets for attachment and execution
- Get a written, stage-wise fee estimate and set a costs-risk reserve
Frequently asked questions
No. It is compulsory unless the suit contemplates urgent interim relief. The Supreme Court has held that rule is mandatory and that non-compliance can lead to rejection of the plaint.
Yes, if the urgency test was met when you filed. The Supreme Court held in 2025 that the question is whether urgent relief was genuinely contemplated, not whether it was finally allowed.
The Maharashtra Court-Fees Act caps the fee on a plaint or memorandum of appeal at ₹3,00,000, but separate fees can apply to distinct claims. Check the current Schedule I before filing.
The Act sets tight procedural timelines, but we cannot give a reliable average for Mumbai. Duration depends on interim applications, appeals and the bench, so we advise clients to plan for years, not months, for contested trials.
Usually yes, in part. Costs follow the event and the Act contemplates actual costs, but courts decide what is reasonable.
To the Commercial Appellate Division of the Bombay High Court, generally within 60 days.
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