The interpretation of the first proviso to Section 7 of the Commercial Courts Act and the determination of specified value under Section 12(1)(d) are crucial in determining the jurisdiction of the Commercial Division of the High Court.

1. The plaintiff Super Cassettes Industries Pvt. Ltd. has filed these suits to restrain the defendant in each of the suits from broadcasting or otherwise communicating to the public cinematograph films, sound recordings, literary works (lyrics) and musical works (musical composition) owned by the plaintiff and in which the plaintiff claims a copyright and for ancillary reliefs.

2. Each of the suits is valued for the purposes of court fees and jurisdiction at (i) Rs.200/- for the relief of permanent injunction; (ii) Rs.200/- for the relief of rendition of accounts; (iii) Rs.200/- for the relief of mandatory injunction; and, (iv) Rs.25,01,000/- for the relief of recovery of damages i.e. for a total of Rs.25,01,000/- and on which court fees of Rs.26,753/- has been paid.

3. It is further the case of the plaintiff that the dispute subject matter of each of the suits is a commercial dispute within the meaning of Section 2(1)(c)(xvii) of the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 (Commercial Courts Act) i.e. a dispute arising out of intellectual property rights relating to registered or unregistered trademarks, copyrights, designs etc.

4. Per Section 7 of the Commercial Courts Act, suits relating to commercial dispute of a ‘specified value’ only are to be tried and disposed of by the Commercial Division of the High Court. ‘Specified Value’, as per clause (i) of Section 2(1) of the Commercial Courts Act has been defined as the value of the subject matter in respect of a suit as determined in accordance with Section 12 which shall not be less than Rs.1 crore. Per Section 12(1)(d), where the relief claimed in a suit relates to any other intangible right (other than recovery of money or other moveable property or immovable property dealt with in Clauses (a), (b) and (c) of Section 12(1)), the specified value of the suit shall be the market value of the said right as estimated by the plaintiff.

5. The plaintiff has valued the intangible rights, as aforesaid at Rs.200/- each and besides the reliefs with respect to such intangible rights has claimed the relief of recovery of money, by way of damages, in the sum of Rs.25,00,000/- and the specified value whereof as per Section 12(1)(a) of the Commercial Courts Act is Rs.25,00,000/- only. Thus the aggregate specified value of the reliefs claimed in the suit is Rs.25,01,600/- which is less than Rs.1 crore prescribed in Section 2(1)(i) supra. It was thus enquired from the counsel for the plaintiff when the suits came up first before this Court on 11th July, 2016 as to how the suits were entertainable by the Commercial Division of this Court and as to why the plaint be not returned to the plaintiff for presentation before the Court of appropriate pecuniary jurisdiction. On request of counsel for the plaintiff, the suits were adjourned to 19th July, 2016 for hearing on this aspect.

6. The plaintiff, though estimating the market value of the intangible right to which each of the suit pertains at less than Rs.1 crore, contends this Court has jurisdiction to entertain the suits owing to the first Proviso to Section 7 of the Commercial Courts Act.

7. Section 7 of the Commercial Courts Act is as under:

“7. Jurisdiction of Commercial Divisions of High Courts—All suits and applications relating to commercial disputes of a Specified Value filed in a High Court having ordinary original civil jurisdiction shall be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Division of that High Court:

Provided that all suits and applications relating to commercial disputes, stipulated by an Act to lie in a court not inferior to a District Court, and filed or pending on the original side of the High Court, shall be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Division of the High Court:

Provided further that all suits and applications transferred to the High Court by virtue of sub-section (4) of section 22 of the Designs Act, 2000 (16 of 2000) or section 104 of the Patents