INDIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Pravin Anand and Rohil Bansal, Anand and Anand
Section 35 of the Code of Civil Procedure gives courts the discretion to impose costs. Section 35A discuss - es compensatory costs in respect of false, vexatious claims or defences. The Supreme Court in the case of Uflex Ltd v Gov - ernment of Tamil Nadu [2021] 7 SCR 571 held that usually the judicial system hesitates to impose costs, presuming it to be a reflection on the counsel. In com - mercial matters costs must follow the cause. There - fore, in other words, the winning party should get the costs and the losing party should pay the costs. If the trade secrets case is filed before the Delhi High Court, the suit will be listed and heard by a single judge. An appeal from the order can be filed before the Appellate Division, comprising two judges (Divi - sion Bench). If any party is not satisfied with the order of the Division Bench, an appeal may lie before the Supreme Court of India. The time period for filing an appeal is 60 days, as per Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. Section 14 of the Act mentions that the appellate court should endeavour to dispose of appeals within a period of six months from the date of filing. Further, an appeal before the Supreme Court would be by way of a Special Leave Petition. As per Section 133 (C) of the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963, the limita - tions period for appeal is 90 days from the date of the judgment or order. It is also possible to appeal interim orders. 8.2 Factual or Legal Review Appellate courts in India are the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the various High Courts (25 in number). As a rule, appellate courts in India deal only with points of law. However, in certain cases where a question of fact was argued before the trial court but was still not considered by the judge, the appellate court can consider said fact. 8. Appeal 8.1 Appellate Procedure
In Wander v Antox 1990 Supp (1) SCC 727, the Supreme Court of India held that the appellate court will not interfere with the exercise of discretion of the court of first instance and substitute its own discre - tion, except where the discretion is shown to have been exercised arbitrarily, capriciously or perversely, or where the court ignored the settled principles of law. The appellate court will not reassess the material and seek to reach a conclusion different from the one reached by the court below, if the one reached by such court was reasonably possible based on the material. Under Indian law, review of an order is usually sought before the same judge who passed the order, and a petition seeking review of an order is allowed only if any of the following factors are proved: • the order had an error apparent on the face it; and • discovery of a new and important matter or evi - dence, which, despite the exercise of due dili - gence, was not within the knowledge of the party seeking review and could not be presented before the court when the order was passed. While exercising its review jurisdiction in Northern India v Governor of Delhi AIR 1980 SC 674, the Supreme Court of India held that a party is not entitled to seek a review of a judgment delivered by this Court merely for the purpose of a rehearing and a fresh decision on the case. If a court feels that a certain issue must be decided for the dispute to reach its logical conclusion, both parties can come to a common consensus, settle and thereby waive an issue, and the matter can proceed as regards the other issues. All appeals have to be filed physically (ie, on paper) followed by oral arguments from both sides before a final order is passed. The Supreme Court of India Rules, Orders XLVII and XLVIII state that certain proceedings before the apex court, such as a review petition and curative petition, would not entail a physical hearing unless specifically directed by the court.
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