(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(iii) retransfer the same for trial or disposal to the Court from which it was withdrawn.
(2) Where any suit or proceeding has been transferred or withdrawn under sub-section (1), the Court which is thereafter to try or dispose of such suit or proceeding may, subject to any special directions in the case of an order of transfer, either retry it or proceed from the point at which it was transferred or withdrawn.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(4) The Court trying any suit transferred or withdrawn under this section from a Court of Small Causes shall, for the purposes of such suit, be deemed to be a Court of Small Causes.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.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 24
Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 vests comprehensive supervisory and administrative jurisdiction in High Courts and District Courts to transfer, withdraw, or re-assign any suit, appeal, or civil proceeding at any stage of litigation.
Under sub-section (2), the transferee court may, subject to special directions, either retry the matter de novo or continue proceedings from the precise stage where transfer occurred.
Crucially, sub-section (5), introduced by the 1976 Amendment, clarifies that a suit or proceeding may be transferred under Section 24 from a court that has no territorial or pecuniary jurisdiction to try it. This statutory cure prevents the mandatory return of plaints under Order VII Rule 10, enabling supervisory courts to transfer improperly instituted actions directly to a competent forum, thereby preserving limitation and avoiding de novo filings. Sub-section (3)(b) expressly confirms that "proceeding" includes execution proceedings under Order XXI.
Litigants seeking transfer under Section 24 must establish cogent and objective grounds; bald allegations of judicial bias are viewed with strict disapproval and may attract exemplary costs. In practice, Section 24 is frequently deployed for the consolidation of cross-suits or connected property litigations pending across different courts to prevent conflicting decrees on identical facts.