MITC Rolling Mills had filed Commercial Suit No. 06 of 2021 before the District Judge, Nashik, seeking recovery of over Rs. 2.52 crore for supply of TMT/Fe-500 material. When its plaint was rejected under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the Bombay High Court held that no appeal lay against that order under Section 13(1A) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.
The Supreme Court, per Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, set that aside, holding that rejection of a plaint is a 'decree' under Section 2(2) of the CPC and is therefore appealable under the main part of Section 13(1A), with the proviso to that provision restricting only appeals against purely interlocutory orders — not against an order that finally disposes of the suit by rejecting the plaint.
Commercial litigants whose plaint has been rejected under Order VII Rule 11 now have settled confirmation that a first appeal lies as of right under the Commercial Courts Act, removing an uncertainty that had previously varied across High Courts.