The term ‘Civil Court’ has not been defined in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 or in

any other law in force in the country. In Ganguli Engineering Limited v. Smt. Sushila
Dasi [1] the Calcutta High Court held that “Any Tribunal or functionary exercising
'judicial functions and, adjudicating disputes not 'relating to crimes should be taken to
be a civil court." The expression ‘civil court’ includes all courts of civil judicature whose
procedure is in essence governed by the Civil Procedure Code [generally] [2] .

Civil Courts try suits of civil nature. In Section 9 of the CPC, the word ‘civil nature’ is
wider than the word ‘civil proceeding’. The section would be available in every case
where the dispute has the characteristic of affecting one’s rights which are not only civil
but of civil nature. [3] The expression ‘civil proceeding’ used under Article 133(1) of the
Constitution of India is wide enough to cover any proceeding of a civil nature decided
by the High Court, whether in its original appellate or revisional jurisdiction. [4] A
proceeding under Article 226 for a writ to bring up a proceeding for consideration must
be a civil proceeding, if the original proceeding concerned civil rights. [5]