oppn parties Commercial Courts to Solve Big Business Disputes

News Snippets

  • Calcutta HC says Cricket Association of Bengal is not liable to pay tax on advertisement inisde Eden Gardens cricket ground as it is not a 'public place' because it does not have unrestricted access for the general public
  • Supreme Court admits a plea from a child of a single OBC mother who had applied for an OBC certificate for her son
  • Supreme Court approves applying strict preventive detention laws for 'cybercriminals'
  • SBI likely to shift part of operations of its Global Market Unit from Kolkata to Mumbai
  • FM nirmala Sitharaman calls for a "structured, process-driven approach to compliance" and asks top I-T officials to speed up refunds and simplify processes
  • Marine insurance costs surge as the oil corridor in Strait of Homruz becomes risky due to war
  • Stocks weaken on Monday on global cues: sensex sheds 511 points to 81896 and Nifty 140 points to 24971
  • Former left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi dies in London at 77. He played for India in 33 Test matches and for Bengal in domestic tournaments
  • Pant becomes the only keeper to score two centuries in the same Test in England
  • England Test: Rishabh Pant hits his second ton and KL Rahul a classy century to put India on top, England need 350 runs on the last day, with the ptich showing signs of wear and tear
  • DGCA orders an audit of the entire aviation ecosystem in the wake of recent snags in many flights after the AI Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad
  • 2 Pahalgam residents arrested by NIA for sheltering and aiding 3 terrorists who killed civilian tourists in pahalgam tell the agency that there were 3 LeT ultras from Pakistan that carried out the attack
  • India unlikely to agree to US demands for lower tariffs on agri products and GM food, trade deal faces fresh hurdles
  • Stocks likely to plummet today as traders will be worried about the effect of US strike on iran, oil price rise and possible inflation. Foreign funds may also withdraw in the volatile global situation
  • Oil prices likely to shoot up as US strikes at iran and the latter decides to close the Strait of Homruz
US President Donald Trump unilaterally announces a 'ceasefire' between Israel & Iran
oppn parties
Commercial Courts to Solve Big Business Disputes

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2016-01-20 12:04:06

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
2016 started on the right note for trade and commerce in India. One pet grievance of businessmen and foreign investors – that commercial disputes took a long time in getting solved due to tedious laws and the famously slow Indian judicial system – was addressed when the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act 2015 (CC Act) was notified on the 1st of January.

The Act has many bright features which would make resolution of commercial disputes simpler on the one hand and reduce the burden on normal courts on the other. The term commercial disputes has been given a very wide definition under the act and will include almost all disputes relating to transactions between merchants, including agreements made in normal course of business.

For any commercial dispute of a value more than Rs 1 crore, commercial courts will have now have the jurisdiction to hear such cases. The best part is that any suit has to be heard on day to day basis and has to be disposed of within 365 days. Appeals, too, have to be disposed of in 6 months. To ensure that this happens, the judges in such courts have been given discretionary powers to impose heavy costs for delaying tactics by litigants or their advocates and on those who file frivolous cases.

Another bright feature of the act is the introduction of case management hearing in these courts. Under this, most of the procedural aspect, like filing papers and depositions will be handled in the respective lawyers’ offices and the matter would come up before the court in a packaged way.

But one feels that although the act would go a long way in addressing the concerns of big business and foreign investors, it is unlikely to reduce the burden on the judicial system in a big way. For, disputes between small traders and of a value less than Rs 1 crore make up for a huge number of cases in courts. One feels that concurrently with the CC Act, another act should be in place for compulsory arbitration of small commercial disputes.

Further, since the state governments or the High Courts are to set up these courts, one is skeptical how they will pan out. One says this because funds and space crunch has always meant that state governments are notoriously slow in these matters. As for the High Court, the number of vacancies on the Bench means that the Chief Justices are either not concerned or are not finding talent to fill them up. How they will address this additional burden of setting up Appellate Divisions of Commercial Courts remains to be seen.