Report No. 253

(iv) Appeals

3.23.1 The Bill presently provides for a direct appeal to the Supreme Court. This is proposed to be replaced with a provision, which mandates that there will be no appeals from orders of the Commercial Division or the Commercial Court save under Order XLIII of the CPC and from final judgments of the Commercial Division or Commercial Court. Such appeals will only be to the jurisdictional Commercial Appellate Division.

3.23.2 It is further recommended that notwithstanding any other law, no civil revision application or petition shall be entertained against an interlocutory order of the Commercial Court, including an order on a jurisdictional challenge. The purpose here is to prevent the time frames stipulated for case management hearing from becoming redundant by the frequent filing of civil revision applications and petitions against every interlocutory order. By removing a potential source of bottleneck of cases, the Bill hopes to ensure the expedited disposal of cases.

3.23.3 Moreover, no appeals will be permitted from a finding of the Commercial Court or Commercial Division that the dispute in question is a commercial dispute inasmuch as there is no real prejudice caused to the parties when the Commercial Court or Commercial Division finds that the dispute is a commercial dispute.