The court ruled that pre-institution mediation under Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act is mandatory, with rejection of suits violating this mandate enforced prospectively from 20.08.2022, allowing for abeyance and mediation for suits filed prior.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises from the judgment and order passed by the High Court at Calcutta on its appellate side dated 22.02.2021 in C.O. No. 1678 of 2020 by which the High Court disposed of the revision application filed by the appellant herein by directing that the suit instituted by the respondent herein, i.e., Union of India, on 09.08.2019, shall be kept in abeyance for seven months from the date of the order or until the receipt of the report of the mediator, whichever is earlier. In other words, the High Court proceeded to pass an order keeping in mind S.12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 (for short, 'the 2015 Act'), as amended in 2018.

3. A. FACTUAL MATRIX
The facts giving rise to this appeal may be summarised as under:
a. The respondent Union of India instituted Money Suit No. 28 of 2019 on 09.08.2019 in the Commercial Court, Alipore against the appellant herein for the recovery of a sum of Rs.8,73,36,976/- (Rupees Eight Crore, Seventy - Three Lakh, Thirty - Six Thousand, Nine Hundred and Seventy - Six only) towards differential freight and penalty. Indisputably, no urgent interim relief was prayed for in the said suit.
b. No sooner the suit referred to above came to be instituted than the appellant herein, as defendant, raised a preliminary objection in its written statement dated 20.12.2019 as regards the maintainability of the suit without availing the remedy of pre - institution mediation under S.12A of the 2015 Act read with Pre - Institution Mediation and Settlement Rules, 2018 (in short, 'the PIMS Rules') which came into force with effect from 03.07.2018.
c. On 30.09.2020, the appellant herein preferred Interim Application No. 190 of 2020 under Order VII R.11 (d) of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (for shot, the 'CPC') read with S.12A of the 2015 Act seeking rejection of the plaint, inter alia, on the ground that the Money Suit No. 28 of 2019 suffered from institutional defects and was violative of the mandatory provisions of pre - institution mediation.
d. The Order VII R.11 (d) application, referred to above, came to be rejected by the Commercial Court vide order dated 21.12.2020. While rejecting the I.A. No. 190 of 2020 the Commercial Court observed thus:
'13. Since the case has been filed on 09.08.2019 and the present application has been filed at a belated stage, I find there is no requirement to reject the suit even for non - compliance of the mandatory provision of S.12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 , otherwise, instead of aid in justice, the justice will be more delayed.
14. Once the plaint has been accepted by this Court, it would be presumed that the Court has no reason whatsoever to reject the plaint and obviously, the Defendant can raise this issue even at the time of filing W/S but admittedly, the Defendant no. 1 filed W/S even without taking the plea as now he has taken and in that case, it would be presumed that they are not also interested in the mediation proceedings.
15. This Court has been established on 05.07.2019 and within a month or more, the instant suit has been filed and at this stage, there is no proper infrastructure for conducting pre - litigation mediation and standard operating procedure has also not been framed by the Hon'ble High Court at Calcutta.
16. In the above circumstances, the plea as taken by the Defendant no. 1 / Petitioner is liable to be rejected as filed at a belated stage.
17. It appears from the instant application that the Defendant no. 1 is interested to proceed with the mediation proceedings and accordingly, let the dispute be referred to mediation and in such case also, the interest of the