Holy strike! RS passes bill to enhance Delhi courts' pecuniary jurisdiction

The Rajya Sabha today passed a bill to increase the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi high court, a move that some of the capital’s lawyers welcomed.

Pecuniary jurisdiction refers to the jurisdiction of a court over a suit based on the amount or value of its subject matter.

The Delhi high court will now have jurisdiction over suits which are above the value of Rs. 2 crore. The value earlier was Rs. 20 lakh.

Consequently, the bill empowers the high court chief justice to transfer any pending suit to a relevant subordinate court.

Meanwhile, the coordination committee of the bar associations of district courts in Delhi welcomed the decision.

Lower court lawyers have been on strike since April 22, repeatedly extending their protest against the delay in passing the amended bill on enhancing pecuniary jurisdiction of district courts.

RK Wadhwa, chairman of the coordination committee, said the city lawyers were happy after the bill was cleared.

He said judicial work in six city courts — Patiala House, Tis Hazari, Rohini, Karkardooma, Saket and Dwarka — will resume after May 8.

To find out what and why exactly the lower and higher courts have been fighting about, click here.

Comments

Civil Court 7 May 2015, 10:07

+4 -1

It is high time. At the end of day, Delhi is only one of the few High Courts that enjoys the original jurisdiction in civil matters, and a majority of litigants in the rest of country have to go to civil courts for their dispute. Also, not to forget that Delhi (excluding NOIDA and Gurgaon ) has 6 (six) district courts. Conventionally it is the civil courts that were meant to do the heavy lifting in civil suits. Many Delhi High Court lawyers have barely even seen the inside of a civil court. Unless civil courts are empowered to hear more and more of the higher stake civil cases, they will never grow into the institution they were meant to grow into.

Dev 8 May 2015, 02:43

+0 -0

Nicely put sir/madam, this will reduce the burden on High court, this should be done a long time ago.

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