In Short
Commercial litigation covers disputes arising from ordinary business transactions — supply and distribution contracts, joint ventures, shareholder disputes, construction and infrastructure contracts, recovery of dues, and breach-of-contract claims — that are tried on an expedited track under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. S&S Co.'s Noida, Delhi and Kolkata teams handle these matters from pre-suit mediation through trial, summary judgment applications and appeal.
What Is Commercial Litigation?
Commercial litigation is the resolution, through the civil court system, of disputes arising out of ordinary business and commercial transactions — as distinct from criminal proceedings, family law, or general civil suits between private individuals. In India, commercial litigation above a specified pecuniary threshold is routed through dedicated Commercial Courts and Commercial Divisions of High Courts constituted under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, which was enacted specifically to secure faster, more predictable adjudication of high-value business disputes.
The Act defines a "commercial dispute" broadly to include disputes arising from ordinary transactions of merchants, bankers, financiers and traders, including matters relating to mercantile documents, export/import of goods and services, admiralty and maritime law, aircraft and vessel financing, carriage of goods, construction and infrastructure contracts, franchising, distribution and licensing agreements, joint ventures, shareholder and partnership agreements, insurance, and intellectual property. The Commercial Courts framework introduces stricter timelines, mandatory case management, summary judgment procedures under Order XIII-A of the CPC, and — since 2018 — mandatory pre-institution mediation under Section 12A for suits that do not contemplate urgent interim relief.
For businesses operating across Delhi NCR and Kolkata, this means commercial disputes are no longer left to the general docket — they are heard by judges with commercial-law specialisation, on a track designed to compress what used to take years into a more predictable, structured timeline.
Courts & Tribunals We Appear Before
Delhi High Court — Original & Commercial Division
Commercial Courts, Delhi District Courts
Commercial Court, Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida)
Punjab & Haryana High Court (Gurugram/Faridabad matters)
Calcutta High Court — Commercial Division
City Civil Court, Kolkata — Commercial Court
NCLT / NCLAT — Delhi & Kolkata Benches
DRT / DRAT — Delhi & Kolkata
Our advocates are enrolled to practise before these forums and regularly appear in original-side suits, interim injunction applications, summary judgment hearings, execution proceedings and first/second appeals arising from commercial judgments.
Types of Commercial Disputes We Handle
- Breach of contract and specific performance — supply agreements, service contracts, distribution and franchise disputes, non-compete and confidentiality breaches.
- Recovery of money and debt — suits for recovery of outstanding dues, dishonoured cheque proceedings under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act run alongside civil recovery, and enforcement of arbitral awards and foreign judgments.
- Shareholder and joint-venture disputes — oppression and mismanagement petitions, JV deadlock resolution, shareholder agreement enforcement, and disputes over exit and valuation mechanisms.
- Construction and infrastructure contract disputes — EPC and works-contract claims, extension-of-time and liquidated-damages disputes, and tender-award challenges.
- Injunctions and interim relief — Order XXXIX injunctions restraining breach of contract, encashment of bank guarantees, and asset dissipation; Section 9 arbitration-linked interim measures.
- Real estate and title disputes connected to commercial transactions, including specific performance of sale agreements and builder-buyer commercial disputes.
- Appeals and revisions from Commercial Court and Commercial Division judgments before the Delhi High Court and Calcutta High Court.
Our Litigation Process
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Case Assessment & Pre-Suit Strategy
We assess the underlying contract, correspondence and cause of action, quantify the claim, and — where Section 12A applies — initiate or respond to pre-institution mediation before filing.
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Drafting & Filing
Pleadings are drafted to the Commercial Courts Act's disclosure and case-management requirements, including the mandatory statement of truth and disclosure of all relevant documents at the outset.
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Interim Relief
Where urgent, we move for interim injunctions, attachment before judgment, or Section 9 relief to preserve the subject matter of the dispute pending trial.
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Case Management & Trial
We engage actively at the case-management hearing to fix a realistic, compressed timeline, and — where the opposing side has no real defence — pursue summary judgment under Order XIII-A rather than a full trial.
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Judgment, Execution & Appeal
Once a decree is obtained, we pursue execution to realise the judgment, and where necessary carry the matter to appeal before the Delhi High Court or Calcutta High Court.
Illustrative Scenarios
The following are hypothetical, illustrative scenarios prepared for educational purposes to explain how commercial litigation issues typically arise and are resolved. They are not descriptions of actual client matters, and no outcome is guaranteed in any specific case.
Illustrative Scenario
Distributor Withholding Payment After a Disputed Short-Delivery Claim
A Noida-based manufacturer supplies goods to a distributor under a long-term supply agreement. The distributor withholds a large payment tranche alleging short delivery, without raising the issue within the contractual notice period. A properly pleaded commercial suit — supported by delivery challans, e-way bills and the notice-period clause — can secure summary judgment where the defence has no real prospect of success, avoiding a multi-year trial.
Illustrative Scenario
Kolkata Joint Venture Deadlock Over Board Control
Two 50:50 shareholders in a Kolkata-based trading company reach a board-level deadlock, with one side refusing to convene meetings. Rather than a winding-up petition — which can take years and destroy enterprise value — an application under Sections 241–242 of the Companies Act for a structured buy-out at fair value, valued by an independent valuer, is often the faster, commercially sensible route.
Illustrative Scenario
Recovery Suit Delayed by a Defendant's Repeated Adjournment Requests in Delhi
A Delhi-based trading company files a recovery suit against a defaulting buyer, who repeatedly seeks adjournments to delay the case-management hearing. Firm reliance on the Commercial Courts Act's case-management framework — and opposing unjustified adjournment requests on record — helps keep the timeline compressed rather than allowing it to drift toward a multi-year trial.
Illustrative Scenario
Summary Judgment Application Against an Indefensible Breach of Contract Claim
A Kolkata supplier is sued for non-delivery under a contract with no genuine factual dispute — the buyer simply stopped paying. Rather than proceeding to a full trial, an Order XIII-A summary judgment application, grounded in the admitted facts and lack of any triable defence, can resolve the claim in months rather than years.
Notable Judgments
Supreme Court — 2026 INSC 674Jul 9, 2026
M/s Levitate Mobile Technologies Pvt. Ltd. v. M/s Standard Chartered Bank & Anr.
Commercial Courts Act Is Meant for Expediency — Voluminous Evidence Cannot Dilute Its Rigours
The Supreme Court held that the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 exists to secure speedy disposal of high-value commercial disputes, and that a litigant cannot resist timely production of evidence merely by pleading that the record is voluminous. The Court read this squarely into the summary and case-management procedures the Act builds on top of the ordinary CPC.
Key Takeaway — Parties before the Commercial Courts of Delhi, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Kolkata must front-load disclosure and evidence — pleading volume as an excuse for delay will not be entertained.
Calcutta High Court — Division BenchJul 8, 2026
Recall of Jurisdictional Finding in a Commercial Courts Act Appeal
Calcutta HC Recalls Its Own Jurisdictional Finding After a Binding Supreme Court Precedent Went Unconsidered
A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court recalled an earlier finding — that a decree was a nullity for want of jurisdiction of the trial judge under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 — on discovering that a binding Supreme Court precedent bearing directly on the point had escaped consideration when the original order was passed.
Key Takeaway — Litigants in Kolkata's Commercial Division should promptly flag any controlling Supreme Court authority missed at first hearing — the Calcutta HC has shown it will revisit its own jurisdictional findings to correct such oversights.
Calcutta High Court — Commercial DivisionJun 8, 2026
Star Pipe Products India Pvt. Ltd. v. Ashirwad Foundries Pvt. Ltd.
Commercial Division Directs Sale of Mortgaged Property in Execution of a Money Decree
Justice Aniruddha Roy, sitting in the Commercial Division of the Calcutta High Court, directed the sale of mortgaged property to satisfy a decree obtained by the decree-holder, underscoring the Division's continuing role in enforcing commercial money decrees efficiently once liability has been finally adjudicated.
Key Takeaway — Decree-holders in Kolkata commercial disputes have a functioning, actively used execution route through the Commercial Division for realising secured dues — delay in enforcement is not inevitable once a decree is in hand.
Legislative Reform2026
Commercial Courts Act — 2026 Procedural Amendments
Wider Summary-Judgment Powers and Mandatory E-Filing Take Hold in Commercial Litigation
2026 has seen Commercial Courts extend summary judgment procedure under Order XIII-A CPC to a broader range of commercial disputes, enabling early disposal without full trial, alongside statutory recognition of e-filing, virtual hearings and electronic evidence protocols as the default mode of practice rather than the exception.
Key Takeaway — Defendants without a genuine triable defence face real exposure to summary judgment — commercial litigation strategy in Delhi NCR and Kolkata must now be built around this compressed timeline from the outset.
See all Legal Updates for this practice area →
Our Approach to Commercial Litigation
- Dual-hub coverage — a single engagement covers both the Delhi NCR and Kolkata Commercial Courts, avoiding the cost and coordination overhead of separate counsel in each city.
- Case-management discipline — we treat the Commercial Courts Act's compressed timelines as an opportunity, not a burden, front-loading disclosure and evidence to secure early wins via summary judgment where available.
- Founders with hands-on litigation experience — Bhaskar Subramanian and Subhradip Roy, both RMLNLU Lucknow alumni, have a combined 20 years across commercial litigation, arbitration and regulatory practice.
- Pan-India reach through associate counsel in Bangalore, Kochi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Indore and Hyderabad for multi-jurisdiction disputes.
Locations We Serve
Our commercial litigation practice serves clients headquartered in or transacting out of Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, New Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, and Kolkata (including Salt Lake and Howrah), with pan-India reach through associate counsel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a "commercial dispute" under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015?
A commercial dispute is one arising out of ordinary transactions of merchants, bankers, financiers and traders — including contracts for goods and services, franchising, distribution, licensing, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, construction and infrastructure contracts, insurance, and intellectual property — where the specified value is at or above the statutory threshold.
How long does a commercial suit typically take in Delhi or Kolkata?
The Act mandates case-management hearings and aims for disposal within roughly a year of that hearing, though actual timelines vary with complexity, interim applications and appeals. Summary judgment can dispose of claims without a full trial where the defendant has no real prospect of success.
Can a commercial suit be settled through mediation instead of trial?
Yes — Section 12A makes pre-institution mediation mandatory for commercial suits that do not contemplate urgent interim relief, and courts have set aside plaints filed without complying with this requirement.
What courts handle commercial litigation in Noida, Delhi NCR and Kolkata?
In Delhi NCR: the Commercial Courts of Delhi and the Commercial Court, Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida), with appeals to the Delhi High Court. In Kolkata: the Commercial Division of the Calcutta High Court and the City Civil Court's Commercial Court.