The Government of Maharashtra acting through Law and Judiciary Department on 16 January 2024 notified an amendment to Section 1(2) of the Bombay City Civil Court Act, 1948 whereby pecuniary jurisdiction of the City Civil Court has been increased from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore having effect from 28 January 2024.
On 20 November 2023, the Governor of Maharashtra proposed to carry out the amendment to the Bombay City Civil Court Act, 1948 ("Act") whereby it was proposed that the pecuniary jurisdiction of the City Civil Courts at Bombay to be increased from Rs 1 Crore to Rs 10 crores.
On 16 January 2024, the Government of Maharashtra through its Law and Judiciary Department notified increase in pecuniary jurisdiction of the City Civil Courts at Bombay which shall be effective from 28 January 2024.
The increase in the pecuniary jurisdiction of the City Civil Courts at Bombay will largely reduce the burden from the Bombay High Court. It would further reduce the backlog of the cases lying in the Bombay High Court and will largely assist the judiciary system for quick disposal of the cases.
Additionally, all the cases filed before the Bombay High Court which are now below the pecuniary jurisdiction of Rs 10 crores will be transferred to City Civil Courts at Bombay. However, the transfer of cases will take substantial amount of time and for initial few months there is a high possibility of the pleadings being not available in the appropriate Court due to non-receipt of papers on time. Further, matters in which the trial has started would have to be now heard a fresh. It will also be pertinent to see whether the infrastructure of the City Civil Court would be able to cope up with such a huge influx of matters especially in terms of upkeeping the records, both electronically as well as physically.
Additionally, such transfer of cases would only cause further chaos and would render delay in justice to the public at large.
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