Procedures
1908 CPC, with commercial courts and pre-institution mediation
Civil suits run under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908. The Commercial Courts Act 2015 created a faster track for commercial disputes above a threshold and made pre-institution mediation mandatory.
Key rules
- Deadline — Contract claims within three years of accrual under the Limitation Act
- Deadline — Written statement within 30 days, extendable to 120 days maximum in commercial suits
- Deadline — Arbitral award challenge within three months under section 34
Governing law
- Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
- Limitation Act, 1963
- Commercial Courts Act, 2015
- Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996amended 2015, 2019, 2021
- Mediation Act, 2023
In practice
The 120-day outer limit for a written statement in commercial suits is absolute — the Supreme Court has held the court has no power to extend it, which makes it one of the harshest deadlines in Indian litigation. Pre-institution mediation under section 12A is a condition precedent unless urgent interim relief is sought. India is a New York Convention party and enforcement of foreign awards under Part II has become markedly more reliable since the pro-enforcement line in recent Supreme Court authority.