The Lok Sabha, on day 11 of the monsoon session, passed the Delhi High Court Amendment Bill, 2014 after years of wrangling and lobbying around the issue between the bar of the district court and the high courts in Delhi. The legislation increases the pecuniary jurisdiction of the High Court of Delhi from Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2m) to Rs 2 crores (Rs 20m).

It makes changes in sub-section (2) of section 5 of the Delhi High Court Act, 1966, by substituting the words “rupees two crore” for the words “rupees twenty lakhs” for the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi high court.

The enhancement of the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi high court has been a bone of contention amongst practicing lawyers in Delhi since its introduction in 2014. There has been a series of strikes called by the Coordination Committee of all district courts bar association and governing body of Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) for and against passage of this bill respectively, seriously hampering functioning of the courts at Delhi.

The passage of the bill has paved way for decongesting the Delhi high court where pendency for civil cases has been increasing due to its original pecuniary jurisdiction of Rs.20 lakh only which made any civil case where the amount involved was Rs. 20 lakh or more to go directly to the high court instead of the lower courts.

While those against passage of the bill argued that the high court is better suited to look into these matters, the district court bar associations claimed that passage of the bill would be in best interests of the litigants because of less pendency at the lower courts and also because of one extra court of relief available to them.

RK Wadhwa, chairman of Coordination Committee of all district courts bar association said, “I congratulate all my colleagues at the bar on this day.” He praised the hard work of his colleagues and judges in bringing out the long overdue but welcome change.

Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) secretary Abhijat commented:

The passage of the DHC amendment bill in lok Sabha today is unfortunate. It is the victory of arbitrariness and the defeat of rationale. We hope that even now the government does not succumb to rank populism but yields to the persuasion of logic. The lives of tens of lacs of litigants would be in a state of utter chaos if this bill is given effect to before the commercial courts Bill is enacted and notified.  All avenues including a challenge to the vires of the DHC amendment bill on the judicial side are open to the Dhcba.  Our struggle will go on.

Wadhwa said that Abhijats statement was “unfortunate, as the passing of bill was need of the hour. It is the victory of litigants and lawyers”. He added that the bill had been passed after due considerations at various stages including consent of the Delhi high court bench.

Each state in India has different pecuniary jurisdictions for their high courts. In Punjab and Haryana High Court, the original civil jurisdiction lies exclusively to the district courts irrespective of the pecuniary amount involved. PRS legislative reported that members participating in the debate supported the Bill and also suggested that a uniform pecuniary jurisdiction across high courts should be set.

For more on the issue, read our investigation into the issue and our previous pecuniary jurisdiction coverage.

PRS Legislative Research’ Trina Roy reports:

Rajya Sabha could not take up scheduled business for the day as protests continued.

In Lok Sabha, Prof. Richard Hay took oath as a nominated member of the House.

The Delhi High Court (Amendment) Bill was passed by the House.  The Bill increases the pecuniary jurisdiction of the High Court of Delhi from Rs. 20 lakh to 2 crores. Members participating in the debate supported the Bill and also suggested that a uniform pecuniary jurisdiction across High Courts to be set.

Lok Sabha also passed supplementary Demands for Grants (General). After the debate, the Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley addressed the concerns raised by members. The Minister pointed out that stalled projects of railways and highways, among other things, required greater allocation. The Minister in his reply also stated that capital expenditure in the first quarter has increased by 17.6% and indirect tax revenue has risen by 37%. The Minister reaffirmed that in spite of global slowdown, the target growth for the year remains at 8%.

Discussion on Sustainable Development Goals began today in the lower house.

The Juvenile Justice Bill is currently pending in Parliament. Our vital stats captures statistics related to crimes committed by children, their social backgrounds and  incidence of repeat offences etc.