Jurisdiction of a District Court does not cease until a case is reserved for judgment, but post-constitution of a Commercial Court, pending cases must be transferred.

1. The petitioners herein are the respondents in OP (ARB) No.498/2016 before the Second Additional District Court, Ernakulam filed under S.34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 filed by the respondents herein. The petitioners were claimants before the sole Arbitrator, Justice K.Sukumaran, former Judge of the Kerala and Bombay High Courts. A dispute had arisen with regard to an agreement between the petitioners and the respondents which was entered into between them on 12.03.2009 with regard to setting up and running an Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) Institute. The sole Arbitrator passed an award on 21.03.2016 awarding a total compensation of Rs.13,39,24,004/- with future interest on the basis that the respondents had committed a breach of contract. The counter claim preferred by the respondents was dismissed. The respondents challenged the award by filing the aforesaid petition at Ext.Pl before the District Court, Ernakulam on 19.05.2016 under S.34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. The petitioners had filed an objection to the aforesaid Arbitration OP which is, Ext.P2. After the entire proceedings were over, oral arguments commenced on 19.06.2019 which continued on various dates and concluded on 26.11.2019. Written argument notes were also filed by both sides. The respondents sought adjournment for further hearing and the Arbitration OP was posted on several dates till 18.02.2020. The 2nd petitioner herein approached this Court by filing OP(C) No.540/2020 seeking a time bound disposal and vide judgement dated 25/02/2020 this Court directed the learned District Judge to dispose the Arbitration OP within 2 months, vide Ext. P3 judgment. After further hearing on several dates, the case was ultimately posted for the judgement on 28.03.2020 as can be seen from Ext.P4. Following the lockdown declared due to the pandemic COVID 19, the Arbitration OP was notified for judgement on 21.05.2020. Thereafter, the matter was posted on 26th May 2020, and on that day orders were passed for transferring the Arbitration OP No.498/2016 to the Designated Commercial Court (Principal Sub Court), Ernakulam, vide Ext.P5.

2. In the opinion of the Additional District Court, the Kerala Government had vide notification dated 24.02.2020 published in the Kerala Gazette (extraordinary) dated 05.03.2020 designated the Principal Sub Court, Ernakulam as the Commercial Court having jurisdiction over the commercial matters within the District of Ernakulam in terms of the provision of S.15(2) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. Accordingly, the case was renumbered as OS No.118/2020 and stands posted to 02.07.2020.

3. According to the petitioners, the transfer of the Arbitration OP to the Commercial Court in accordance with Ext.P6, SRO No. 175/2020, is improper and irregular. It is stated that though the Government had by notification constituted the Subordinate Courts in the 14 Districts of the State as Commercial Courts, on the date of publication of the notification, i.e. on 05.03.2020, no Commercial Court started actual functioning in the State to exercise jurisdiction and powers of the Commercial Courts. According to the petitioners, in view of the clear stipulation in sub-Section (2) to S.15 of the Commercial Courts Act, any suit or application where the final judgement has been reserved, shall not be transferred to the Commercial Courts. There is no legal necessity in the instant case for transferring the case of the Commercial Court. Even after the coming of the Gazette notification constituting a Commercial Court, when a matter is taken up for judgement, the District Court does not lose jur