Delhi HC declines to restrain judges' committee from tabling report on district courts' pecuniary jurisdiction

The committee of judges constituted to examine the issue of increasing the pecuniary jurisdiction of the district courts in the national capital was on Friday given the green signal by the Delhi High Court to table its report before the full court of the High Court.

A Division Bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Tejas Karia rejected the request by Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) to halt the process.

A detailed copy is awaited.

The DHCBA had filed an application to stop the report from being tabled before the full court.

The plea was moved in DHCBA's already pending case challenging a full court decision of the High Court to constitute a committee of judges to examine the proposal to increase the pecuniary jurisdiction of the district courts in the national capital from ₹2 crores to ₹20 crores. 

Notably, the committee of judges was constituted after a meeting of the full court on September 2, 2025. 

At present, the committee consists of Justices V Kameswar Rao, Nitin Wasudeo Sambre, Dinesh Mehta, Vivek Chaudhary, Prathiba M Singh and Navin Chawla. 

The coordination committee of the All District Courts Bar Association of Delhi had, in May 2025, written to Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and members of the Law Commission requesting the enhancement of the pecuniary jurisdiction of district courts from ₹2 crores to ₹20 crores. 

A committee of Delhi High Court judges was then constituted to consider the issue and to interact with the stakeholders and make recommendations.

However, the DHCBA has been opposing the move.

It is DHCBA's case that the judges' committee was constituted after the full court took cognisance of the letter written by the Coordination Committee of all district court bar associations. 

The DHCBA's case is that the letter was addressed to the Union Ministry of Law and not to the High Court Chief Justice. 

It is also clear that the Ministry of Law did not seek either comments or initiate the process, but the full court went ahead and took cognisance of the letter issued by the Co-ordination Committee, the DHCBA said. 

It added that no reason has been provided on why the High Court constituted the judges' committee. 

Senior Advocate AS Chandhiok appeared for the DHCBA. 

Advocate Amit George represented the Delhi High Court.