Report No. 253

Table 2.3: Comparison of pendency of civil suits in 2012 and 2013 in High Courts with original jurisdiction

17. In the context of the Bombay High Court, the disproportionate increase of 32.40% over one year may be attributed to the practical difficulties caused by implementing the increase in the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Court to Rupees One Crore.

2.4.3 By and large, in the five High Courts with original jurisdiction, there are 32,656 civil suits pending. This, in fact represents a 6.27% increase in pendency in the previous year, as is evident from Table 3 above.

2.4.4 It may be noted that original side cases in the above High Courts include arbitration appeals and arbitration petitions under the A&C Act, 1996. However, there is no uniformity in the treatment of such appeals and petitions as "civil suits". In the Bombay High Court, arbitration appeals and petitions have been classified as "civil suits", whereas in the Delhi High Court, they are classified as "original side" cases, without necessarily being counted as "civil suits".

2.4.5 The Law Commission also sought data from the five High Courts with original jurisdiction on the pendency of "commercial disputes" as presently defined in the 2009 Bill. A questionnaire with nine specific questions was sent to the five High Courts which currently have ordinary original civil jurisdiction relating to inter alia, the pendency of civil suits and the number of commercial disputes. The figures sent by the registries of the five High Courts, as of 31.12.2013 are reproduced below.

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