Litigation

Litigation in the High Court of Sindh at Karachi: Which Cases Go There and How (2026)

For sixty years a Karachi business with a large claim could sue directly in the High Court of Sindh. That changed in January 2025, and a second change followed when the Twenty-seventh Amendment reorganised how constitutional petitions are heard. Many litigants, and some older guides, have not caught up. Anyone looking for the best High Court lawyer in Karachi should first ask a narrower question: after the 2025 and 2026 reforms, does this dispute belong in the High Court at all, and if so, by which door? This guide maps those doors for companies, taxpayers, property owners, civil servants, banks and borrowers.

The 2025 reset: the High Court is no longer Karachi's big-suit trial court

Section 7 of the Sindh Civil Courts Ordinance, 1962 used to carve Karachi out of the District Judge's unlimited jurisdiction. Suits above a pecuniary ceiling went to the High Court's Original Side instead. The ceiling rose in steps over the decades; the last figure, sixty-five million rupees, was set by the Sindh Civil Courts (Amendment) Act, 2021 (Sindh Act No. XXXIX of 2021, dated 28 December 2021).

In 2023 a Division Bench, hearing Ghulam Asghar Pathan v. Federation of Pakistan (C.P. No. D-5913 of 2018), declined to strike section 7 down but recorded that Original Side suits had grown to more than twenty-one thousand, most of them ordinary civil disputes, and asked the Sindh Government to consider removing the Karachi exception or confining it to commercial suits.

The legislature chose removal. The Sindh Civil Courts (Amendment) Act, 2025, dated 27 January 2025 and in force at once:

• substituted section 7 so that the District Judge's original civil jurisdiction is "without limit of the value thereof";
• inserted section 7-A, transferring all suits and proceedings pending in the High Court's original jurisdiction to the concerned District Judge;
• inserted section 24-A, transferring pending suits against the Government and public officers in the same way; and
• inserted section 27-A, giving the Ordinance overriding effect over other laws and over judgments and decrees.

In practice, a property, contract, partnership or tort suit in Karachi now begins in the District Courts, whatever its value. There is no separate commercial court for Karachi that we have been able to identify; commercial suits are tried by District Judges like other civil suits. Our civil litigation page covers that trial process.

Still open: constitutional petitions challenging the 2025 Act were filed in the High Court in February 2025, arguing among other things that it interferes with the High Court's own jurisdiction and with the Sindh Chief Court Rules (Original Side). We have not found a final decision on them. How far those Rules continue to govern the matters the High Court still hears at first instance is also not settled in any judgment we have located.

What the High Court still hears at first instance

The 2025 Act amended a provincial statute about ordinary civil courts. It did not touch federal laws that confer jurisdiction on the High Court by name, and the court's own case-law portal shows that work continuing in 2026:

• Company matters. Winding-up petitions and other applications under the Companies Act, 2017 are filed in the High Court and registered as J.C.M. cases; company petitions were being heard and decided at Karachi through 2026.
• Banking recovery. The High Court continues to exercise special jurisdiction as a Banking Court under the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance, 2001. In January 2026 a single judge allowed execution of an interim decree passed in a 2024 banking suit, describing the court as "exercising special jurisdiction under the FIO, 2001". Banking Courts set up under the same Ordinance also hear recovery suits, and whether a particular claim belongs in the High Court or in a Banking Court depends on the Ordinance's definition of Banking Court, which should be checked before filing.
• Admiralty. Claims against ships, including arrest of vessels at Karachi port, remain High Court business; several admiralty suits were instituted in 2026.
• Trade mark invalidity. In High Court Appeal No. 289 of 2024 (decided 10 February 2025) a Division Bench held that section 80(4) of the Trade Marks Ordinance, 2001 lets an applicant seek a declaration of invalidity directly in the High Court where no proceedings are pending before the Registrar. Infringement suits belong before the IP Tribunal.

Interim relief in these matters is sought by application under Order XXXIX, Rules 1 and 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The tests are the same as in any civil court; see our guide to interim injunctions in Pakistan and, for land disputes now in the District Courts, stay orders on property in Karachi.

Constitutional petitions under Article 199 and the Constitutional Benches

Article 199 of the Constitution lets the High Court issue directions to public bodies and officials, quash unlawful orders and protect fundamental rights where no other adequate remedy is provided by law. For businesses, it is the usual route against an unlawful notification, a licensing decision, a tender award by a government department or a demand by a regulator; for civil servants, it is often used where the Service Tribunal has no jurisdiction.

The Twenty-sixth Amendment (2024) inserted Article 202A, providing for Constitutional Benches in the High Courts. In Sindh the arrangement has been given statutory form by the Constitutional Benches of High Court of Sindh (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2025 (Sindh Act No. I of 2026), deemed effective from the commencement of the Twenty-seventh Amendment. Its main features are:

• only judges nominated by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan may sit on a Constitutional Bench, and a nominated judge may not decline to sit;
• the senior-most nominated judge is the Head, and a committee of the Head and the two next senior Constitutional Bench judges allocates work, transfers cases and forms larger benches;
• Article 199 petitions may be filed at the Principal Seat in Karachi, the Sukkur Bench, or the Circuit Courts at Hyderabad, Larkana and Mirpurkhas, within the territorial limits the High Court fixes; and
• petitions in which a stay order is operating are to be heard on priority and, as far as possible, decided within six months.

A Division Bench recorded in February 2026 that Article 199 jurisdiction "now vests only with the Constitutional Bench constituted under Article 202A", and an earlier appeal in that case had been converted into a constitutional petition and sent to that bench. In October 2026 the Judicial Commission extended the term of the Sindh Constitutional Benches by one year.

Unsettled points. Whether an intra-court appeal lies from a single Constitutional Bench judge, and how mixed cases (for example a statutory appeal that also raises a constitutional challenge) are allocated, are not answered by the Sindh Act itself. Expect the office to raise objections on listing where a case sits on the line, and draft the petition so that the Article 199 relief is clearly identified.

References, appeals and revisions from other forums

Much High Court work is appellate or supervisory rather than original:

• Tax and customs references. Questions of law arising from Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue and Customs Appellate Tribunal orders reach the High Court by reference under section 133 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, section 47 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 and section 196 of the Customs Act, 1969. These are statutory proceedings, not Article 199 petitions. Our separate guide to the tax reference in the High Court explains drafting the questions of law and the time limits.
• Banking appeals. Appeals from Banking Court decisions lie to the High Court under section 22 of the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance, 2001 within 30 days; the High Court has dismissed late appeals on that ground.
• First appeals. Appeals against decrees of District Judges and Additional District Judges in civil suits come to the High Court under section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure. With all high-value Karachi suits now tried in the District Courts, this docket is where most large commercial and property cases will eventually reach the High Court.
• Civil revisions. Section 115 of the Code lets the High Court correct jurisdictional errors by subordinate courts where no appeal lies. The section carries its own time limit, and delay must be explained day by day: in R.A. No. 211 of 2011 a revision filed 131 days after the judgment was dismissed as time-barred without reaching the merits.
• High Court Appeals. Section 3 of the Law Reforms Ordinance, 1972 provides an appeal to a bench of two or more judges from a single judge's decision in original civil jurisdiction. After the 2025 Act this route mainly serves the company, banking and admiralty work still decided by single judges, and older appeals: in September 2026 a Division Bench disposed of a 1999 appeal against an injunction order, sending the main suit, by then transferred to the District Court, for decision within six months. In December 2025 a Division Bench questioned whether an appeal lay at all where the single judge was not exercising original civil jurisdiction, so maintainability should be checked first.

Quick map: matter, route and governing law

Type of matter	Route in or around the High Court of Sindh	Key statute or rule
Ordinary civil suit in Karachi (property, contract, tort), any value	District Judge, not the High Court	Sections 7 and 7-A, Sindh Civil Courts Ordinance, 1962 (as amended by Sindh Act VI of 2025)
Challenge to a government, regulatory or public body decision	Constitutional petition before a Constitutional Bench	Articles 199 and 202A of the Constitution; Sindh Act I of 2026
Winding up or other company application	Company petition (J.C.M.) in the High Court	Companies Act, 2017
Bank recovery suit or execution within the High Court's banking jurisdiction	Banking suit on the Original Side	Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance, 2001
Appeal from a Banking Court	Appeal to the High Court within 30 days	Section 22, FIO 2001
Claim against a ship	Admiralty suit	Admiralty jurisdiction of the High Court
Question of law from a tax or customs tribunal	Reference to a Division Bench	Section 133 ITO 2001; section 47 Sales Tax Act, 1990; section 196 Customs Act, 1969
Decree of a District or Additional District Judge	First appeal	Section 96, CPC
Jurisdictional error by a subordinate civil court	Civil revision	Section 115, CPC
Single-judge decision in original civil jurisdiction	High Court Appeal to a Division Bench	Section 3, Law Reforms Ordinance, 1972

Benches, cause lists and tracking a case

The High Court sits at its Principal Seat in Karachi, with a bench at Sukkur and circuit courts at Hyderabad, Larkana and Mirpurkhas. The seat is decided by territorial jurisdiction, not by the litigant's preference; a petition about a Hyderabad land record or a Sukkur district office normally belongs at that bench.

The court's website publishes daily cause lists for each seat, including a separate list for the Additional Registrar (Original Side), and a case-search tool for each bench. It also offers a cases alert service by email or mobile, applications for video-link appearance, and a judgments portal at caselaw.shc.gov.pk where orders are uploaded, often within days. Practical habits that save hearings:

• check the cause list the evening before and again in the morning, because supplementary lists are common;
• track the case number exactly as registered, since a misread prefix (C.P. D, J.C.M., B-suit, Adm. Suit, HCA) returns nothing;
• read recent orders in the file before every date, as office objections and compliance directions are recorded there rather than notified separately.

Time limits and what happens after the High Court

Limitation is where most avoidable losses occur. Each route carries its own clock: 30 days for a banking appeal under section 22 of the FIO 2001, the periods fixed in the tax statutes for references, and the periods in the Limitation Act, 1908 and section 115 of the Code for appeals and revisions. Article 199 fixes no period, but the court can refuse relief for unexplained delay, so a petition against an adverse order should be filed promptly. When in doubt, count from the date of the decision, apply for certified copies at once, and treat any delay application as a last resort rather than a plan.

After the High Court decides, the next forum depends on the nature of the case. Broadly, since the Twenty-seventh Amendment, matters turning on constitutional questions go to the Federal Constitutional Court and other appeals go to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, but the dividing line is still being worked out and should be checked for each case. See our guides to litigation in the Federal Constitutional Court and to the Supreme Court of Pakistan before the limitation for a leave petition starts to run.

Court fees and professional charges are not covered here; they depend on the schedule in force and on the work involved, and are discussed privately.

Common questions

This article is general information about Pakistani law and procedure, not legal advice for any specific matter. If this touches on something you're currently facing, get in touch and we'll advise on your facts directly.