(1) On the application of a party, and after notice to the parties, and after hearing such of them as desire to be heard, the Supreme Court may, at any stage, if satisfied that an order under this section is expedient for the ends of justice, direct that any suit, appeal or other proceeding be transferred from a High Court or other Civil Court in one State to a High Court or other Civil Court in any other State.
(2) Every application under this section shall be made by a motion which shall be supported by an affidavit.
(3) The Court to which such suit, appeal or other proceeding is transferred shall, subject to any special directions in the order of transfer, either retry it or proceed from the stage at which it was transferred to it.
(4) In dismissing any application under this section, the Supreme Court may, if it is of opinion that the application was frivolous or vexatious, order the applicant to pay by way of compensation to any person who has opposed the application such sum, not exceeding two thousand rupees, as it considers appropriate in the circumstances of the case.
(5) The law applicable to any suit, appeal or other proceeding transferred under this section shall be the law which the Court in which the suit, appeal or other proceeding was originally instituted ought to have applied to such case.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 25
Section 25 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 confers plenary statutory authority upon the Supreme Court of India to transfer any civil suit, appeal, or other proceeding from a High Court or subordinate civil court in one State to a competent civil court in another State.
Grounded in constitutional equity, the Court assesses factors such as reasonable apprehension of bias, local communal or administrative hostility, physical safety of litigants, severe financial distress, and the comparative balance of convenience.
To deter abuse, sub-section (4) empowers the Supreme Court to penalize frivolous or vexatious transfer petitions by awarding compensatory costs up to two thousand rupees to the opposing party. Under sub-section (5), an indispensable choice-of-law rule is codified: the transferee court must apply the substantive law that the originating court ought to have applied, preventing litigants from utilizing Section 25 transfers to engage in forum shopping or escape local statutory protections (such as State rent control or tenancy enactments).
Petitions under Section 25 must be instituted as Transfer Petitions (Civil) before the Supreme Court under Order XLI of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013. The petition must be accompanied by an application for stay of trial court proceedings; upon issuance of notice, trial proceedings before the originating court are customarily stayed pending final determination.