Appeal Against Commercial Court Judgment Lies Under Commercial Courts Act, Not CPC: MP High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has said that a judgment delivered by a Commercial Court carries the force of a decree, and an appeal against it must be filed under the Commercial Courts Act rather than under the Civil Procedure Code.

A division bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal held that such appeals must be filed under Section 13(1A) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, and registered as First Appeals before the Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court.

“The judgment passed by the Commercial Court has the force of a decree. The Commercial Court shall have the jurisdiction to try all the suits and applications relating to commercial disputes as defined under Section 2(c) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. Therefore, an appeal filed under Section 13(1A) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 shall lie before the Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court, and the same is liable to be registered as First Appeal” the bench said.

The court was dealing with an appeal filed by NTPC after the District Judge of the Commercial Court at Jabalpur dismissed its commercial suit on July 23, 2025. NTPC filed a miscellaneous appeal under Section 13(1A) of the Commercial Courts Act to challenge that decision.

The High Court registry, however, raised an objection and said the appeal ought to have been filed under Section 96 of the Civil Procedure Code, read with the Commercial Courts Act.

The bench did not agree. It referred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court Rules, 2008, which state that appeals against an original decree, or an order having the force of a decree, must be registered as First Appeals.

Since judgments of commercial courts have the force of a decree, the judges said the appeal was correctly filed under the Commercial Courts Act.

The court asked NTPC to amend the appeal accordingly and directed the registry to register it as a first appeal. With these directions, the appeal was treated as disposed of.