The Gazette of India was notified with the Delhi High Court Amendment Bill 2014 on Monday bringing the Bill into effect. With the Bill now into action, the transfer of cases will start and more than 15,000 civil suits will go to 11 district courts for trial.
According to the Delhi High Court Amendment Bill 2014, the district courts of the national Capital will now have jurisdiction over suits valued up to Rs2 crore. Earlier, the lower courts could only try civil suits valued only up to Rs20 lakh. Suits amounting to over Rs20 lakh would lie before the High Court.
The last revision of pecuniary jurisdiction of District Courts in Delhi was done in 2003, when it was raised from Rs5 lakh to Rs20 lakh.
The Bill has been brought into existence after amendments were made in Section 5 of the Delhi High Court Act, 1966 and Section 25 of the Punjab Courts Act, 1918 by changing the pecuniary jurisdiction of the High court and eleven district courts in the Capital.
With changes in the Delhi High Court Act, 1966, the workload and pendency of cases at the Delhi High Court will be witnessed. It will also bring the judiciary closer to the litigant public and reduce the cost of litigation as the cost of hiring a district court lawyer is much less than that of engaging a High Court counsel.
The bill was introduced by the UPA Government in the Rajya Sabha in February 2014 and referred to the Standing Committee on law and Personnel, which cleared it. The NDA Government also approved it with any change.
The lawyers in the meanwhile have also been demanding for the setting up of Commercial Division Bench, which will look after the commercial suits, the Delhi High Court Amendment bill however has no mention of it and the demand for the commercial bench is expected to be raised by the lawyers association.
If passed by Parliament, the Commercial Bench will provide original jurisdiction to every High Court to hear commercial cases valued at more than Rs1 crore.