The Commercial High Court of Colombo is established according to the statute High Court of the Provinces (Special Provisions) Act No.10 of 1996.  The designation of the Commercial High Court is specially designed to determine civil actions of special categories, which are commercial in nature. For administrative convenience, one of the Judges of the High Court of the Western Province sitting at Colombo was specially designated for this purpose. This led to the establishment of a separate Registry to facilitate the effective handling of cases related to commercial transactions. These administrative arrangements, aimed at streamlining the adjudication process, resulted in the use of colloquial term "Commercial Court".

The nature of the cases that are tried in the Commercial High Court include actions where the cause of the action has arisen out of a commercial transaction (including the cause of action relating to banking, the export or merchandise, services, affreightment, insurance, mercantile agency, mercantile usages, or the construction of any mercantile document) in which the debt, damage or demand is for a sum exceeding five million rupees or such other amount as may be fixed by the Minister from time to time by Notification published in the Gazette. Moreover, other than an action instituted under the Debt Recovery (Special Provisions) Act No.2 of 1990, applications made under the Companies Act No. 7 of 2007, and all proceedings under the Intellectual Property Act No.36 of 2003 also fall under the jurisdiction of the Commercial High Court.

At present, there are four Commercial High courthouses operating in Colombo.