JUDGMENT :

1. Heard learned Counsel for the parties.

2. This petition challenges an order passed by the District Court at Nashik, sitting as a commercial court. The impugned order has been passed on an application of the Petitioners herein, who are original defendants in the commercial suit, for return of the plaint for presentation to proper court under Order 7 Rule 10 of CPC.

3. The controversy in the matter is whether the suit filed by the Respondents herein (original plaintiffs) is a commercial suit. The dispute between the parties arises under an agreement by which the original defendants purportedly agreed to transfer their development rights, for construction of a building, to the plaintiffs in consideration of the latter sharing the development potential with them in the ratio of 43 : 57. This agreement, on the face of it, is prima facie a construction contract; it transfers development rights by way of construction of a building and sale of premises therein in a certain stated proportion as between the parties. The defendants’ submission before the District Court was that the transaction did not come within the purview of a “commercial dispute” defined under Clause (c) of Sec