Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction to be treated as the Commercial Court having territorial jurisdiction over the said area expounds HC, Read Judgement

15 Jul 2024

Categories: Case Analysis High Courts

The Hon’ble Andhra Pradesh High Court expounded that the execution petitions would have to be filed before the Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction in the District in as much as the Court has been defined under Section 2 (1)(e) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (‘A&C Act’) to mean Principal Civil Court.

Further, the Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction would have to be treated to be the Commercial Court having territorial jurisdiction over the said area.

The Bench noted that the Section 2(i) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 had fixed the specified value to mean a value in respect of a suit which shall not be less than Rs.1,00,00,000/. However, this value was reduced to Rs.3,00,000/- by an Ordinance No.3 of 2018, which was subsequently replaced by the Central Act No.28 of 2018, with effect from 03.05.2018.

Brief Facts:

An arbitral award was passed in favor of the Respondent who sought execution of the said award. The execution was objected to by the Petitioners on the ground that to realize an amount of Rs.46,46,965/- the execution petition could not have been filed before the Learned Principal District Judge as it is only the Commercial Court at Visakhapatnam which would have jurisdiction under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.

The Learned District Court judge dismissed the objection, hence the present matter.

Observations of the Court:

It was observed that the execution petitions would have to be filed before the Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction in the District in as much as the Court has been defined under Section 2 (1)(e) to mean Principal Civil Court.

Further, the Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction would have to be treated to be the Commercial Court having territorial jurisdiction over the said area.

It was ruled that in the present case, matter would have to be placed before the Commercial Court at Visakhapatnam as the Commercial Court at Visakhapatnam has territorial jurisdiction over East Godavari District.

The decision of the Court:

Based on aforementioned reasoning, the Court directed the Respondent to either move the execution petition before the Commercial Court or withdraw the petition and move a fresh one before the Commercial Court.

Case Title: U.v. Satyanarayana, and Others v. M/s Shriram City Union Finance Ltd

Case No.: Civil Revision Petition No: 740/2024

Coram: Hon’ble Sri Justice R Raghunandan Rao, Hon’ble Sri Justice Harinath.N

Advocates for Petitioner: Adv. Arrabolu Sai Naveen

Advocates for Respondent: Adv. Maheswara Rao Kuncheam