Jurisdiction in respect of arbitration matters

Where the subject-matter of an arbitration is a commercial dispute of a Specified Value and— (1) If such arbitration is an international commercial arbitration, all applications or appeals arising out of such arbitration under the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (26 of 1996) that have been filed in a High Court, shall be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Division where such Commercial Division has been constituted in such High Court. (2) If such arbitration is other than an international commercial arbitration, all applications or appeals arising out of such arbitration under the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (26 of 1996) that have been filed on the original side of the High Court, shall be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Division where such Commercial Division has been constituted in such High Court. (3) If such arbitration is other than an international commercial arbitration, all applications or appeals arising out of such arbitration under the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (26 of 1996) that would ordinarily lie before any principal civil court of original jurisdiction in a district (not being a High Court) shall be filed in, and heard and disposed of by the Commercial Court exercising territorial jurisdiction over such arbitration where such Commercial Court has been constituted. In Order XIX of the Code, after Rule 3, the following Rules shall be inserted, namely:— “4. Court may control evidence.—(1) The Court may, by directions, regulate the evidence as to issues on which it requires evidence and the manner in which such evidence may be placed before the Court. (2) The Court may, in its discretion and for reasons to be recorded in writing, exclude evidence that would otherwise be produced by the parties.”. 5. Redacting or rejecting evidence.—A Court may, in its discretion, for reasons to be recorded in writing— (i) redact or order the redaction of such portions of the affidavit of examination-in-chief as do not, in its view, constitute evidence; or (ii) return or reject an affidavit of examination-in-chief as not constituting admissible evidence. 6. Format and guidelines of affidavit of evidence.—An affidavit must comply with the form and requirements set forth below:— (a) such affidavit should be confined to, and should follow the chronological sequence of, the dates and events that are relevant for proving any fact or any other matter dealt with; (b) where the Court is of the view that an affidavit is a mere reproduction of the pleadings, or contains the legal grounds of any party’s case, the Court may, by order, strike out the affidavit or such parts of the affidavit, as it deems fit and proper; (c) each paragraph of an affidavit should, as far as possible, be confined to a distinct portion of the subject; (d) an affidavit shall state—(i) which of the statements in it are made from the deponent’s own knowledge and which are matters of information or belief; and (ii) the source for any matters of information or belief; (e) an affidavit should—(i) have the pages numbered consecutively as a separate document (or as one of several documents contained in a file); (ii) be divided into numbered paragraphs; (iii) have all numbers, including dates, expressed in figures; and (iv) if any of the documents referred to in the body of the affidavit are annexed to the affidavit or any other pleadings, give the annexures and page numbers of such documents that are relied upon.”.