CPC Section 24 — General power of transfer and withdrawal
Civil
Summary
A High Court or District Court can move a case from one court to another. This can happen if one of the people involved in the case asks for it, after giving notice to everyone and hearing anyone who wants to speak, or the court can do it on its own without any notice. The court can transfer a case to a lower court that has the authority to handle it, or it can take a case from a lower court and either handle it themselves, send it to another lower court, or send it back to the original court. Once a case is moved, the new court can either start over from the beginning or continue from where it was stopped. For this rule, courts of Additional and Assistant Judges are considered lower than the District Court, and the term "proceeding" includes actions to enforce a court order. If a case is moved from a Small Causes Court, the new court will act as if it were a Small Causes Court for that case. A case can be moved even if the original court did not have the legal authority to hear it.
Official Text
(1) On the application of any of the parties and after notice to the parties and after hearing such of them as desired to be heard, or of its own motion without such notice, the High Court or the District Court may at any stage
(a) transfer any suit, appeal or other proceeding pending before it for trial or disposal to any Court subordinate to it and competent to try or dispose of the same, or
(b) withdraw any suit, appeal or other proceeding pending in any Court subordinate to it, and
(i) try or dispose of the same; or
(ii) transfer the same for trial or disposal to any Court subordinate to it and competent to try or dispose of the same; or
(iii) retransfer the same for trial or disposal to the Court from which it was withdrawn.
(2) Where any suit or proceeding has been transferred or withdrawn under sub-section (1), the Court which is thereafter to try or dispose of such suit or proceeding may, subject to any special directions in the case of an order of transfer, either retry it or proceed from the point at which it was transferred or withdrawn.
(3) For the purposes of this section,
(a) Courts of Additional and Assistant Judges shall be deemed to be subordinate to the District Court;
(b) proceeding includes a proceeding for the execution of a decree or order.
(4) The Court trying any suit transferred or withdrawn under this section from a Court of Small Causes shall, for the purposes of such suit, be deemed to be a Court of Small Causes.
(5) A suit or proceeding may be transferred under this section from a Court which has no jurisdiction to try it.