Notorious for its bursting roster, the Indian judiciary has recently been put in the limelight for its less than speedy delivery of justice. The inefficiency of our legal system has made the Indian economy a harsh place for foreign as well as domestic investment to prosper leading to potential investors moving towards more investor-friendly nations. Thus, there has been a knocking need of an efficient dispute resolution mechanism for enforcement, award and recovery related to business matters. With the infusion of foreign direct investment (the “FDI”) in the Indian economy thanks to the Modi-driven initiatives, there existed a very visible vacuum for the resolution of commercial matters. The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Ordinance, 2015 (the “Ordinance”) was recently promulgated by the President on 23?10-2015. The Ordinance has been designed as per the lessons learnt from similar legislations in the United Kingdom, Singapore, France and United States of America.
The Indian legal system had never envisaged designated commercial courts before, and thus the Ordinance comes as a breath of fresh air to the litigation-harried souls. It was common say to find certain Judges of the District Court and High Court (of original jurisdiction) who primarily heard commercial disputes. However, these Judges never heard such matters exclusively. The Ordinance provides for a specific forum that deals with only commercial matters, and thus is of immense significance to the fostering of our young economy. The article is an attempt by the authors to appraise the Ordinance in light of the need of such infrastructure.
The Ordinance is critically analysed in Part I of the article. Part II of the article witnesses the conclusion along with the authors’ humble opinion on the promulgation of Ordinance. [Read more…]
*Fourth year student, BBA LLB (Business Law Hons.), National Law University, Jodhpur, dhruvasareen@gmail.com.
** Fourth year student, BBA LLB (Business Law Hons.), National Law University, Jodhpur, shiveshaggarwal94@gmail.com.