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2021 DIGILAW 1869 (MAD)

Aarur Tamilnadan v. S. Shankar

2021-07-08

SANJIB BANERJEE, SENTHILKUMAR RAMAMOORTHY

body2021
JUDGMENT : Sanjib Banerjee, J. This is complete waste of time as the appeals are not maintainable. The appeals arise out of an order dated March 3, 2021 passed on applications filed under Order XIV Rule 8 of the Original Side Rules read with the provisions of the Code to produce additional documents, to reopen the plaintiff's evidence, to recall PW-1 and to extend the time for completion of trial in the suit. The plaintiff is the appellant herein upon the applications being rejected. 2. The suit has been recognised to be a commercial suit. In accordance with the provisions of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, pending suits which were commercial in nature were required to be transferred to the Commercial Division of the High Court. Thus, this suit of the year 2010 stood transferred to the Commercial Division after the Act of 2015 came into effect, though the suit was initially instituted on the original side and before the Commercial Division was established in this Court. 3. Since there is no dispute that the suit is a commercial suit, Section 13 of the Act of 2015 will govern the appeals arising out of any judgment or order passed in such suit. Though Section 13 (1A) permits any person aggrieved by a judgment or order of the Commercial Division of the High Court to prefer an appeal before the Commercial Appellate Division of that High Court, the proviso to such sub-section limits the scope of the appeal and confines the appeals to such matters and nature of orders as are "specifically enumerated under Order XLIII of the Code ...". To boot, Section 13 (2) of the Act mandates as follows: "(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force or Letters Patent of a High Court, no appeal shall lie from any order or decree of a Commercial Division or Commercial Court otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of this Act." Thus, the body of the jurisprudence that had developed as regards appellability under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent becomes redundant in commercial suits. The effect of Section 13 (2) of the Act is that appeals previously provided in respect of orders in suits filed on the Original Side of this Court would no longer be maintainable since Clause 15 of the Letters Patent would not apply if the suit was a commercial suit and only Order XLIII of the Code would be applicable. 4. Since the nature of the application in the present case is not one which is enumerated in Order XLIII of the Code as being appellable, the present appeal in the commercial suit is not maintainable under Section 13 of the Act of 2015 which has to be seen as the only repository of judgments and orders against which appeals may be carried, since the right to prefer an appeal under the Letters Patent has been done away with in the provision. 5. Accordingly, O.S.A.Nos.15 to 18 of 2021 stand dismissed without going into the merits thereof since the appeals are not maintainable. There will be no order as to costs. Consequently, C.M.P.No.9987 of 2021 are closed.