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Commercial Courts
The 2015 enactment to streamline commercial cases under a specialised court has received mixed comments from the judiciary and practitioners. The salient provisions of the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 and the reasons for its cold welcome by the legal fraternity are analysed.
The current government has been pushing its agenda of “ease of doing business in India” in full swing via yet another expeditious mechanism, that is, commercial courts. The newly formed Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 (CC Act) promises to accelerate the justice delivery system with respect to commercial matters. The act follows the trail of the developed countries that have statutes in place reflecting similar principles, for example, United Kingdom (UK), United States, Manila, Singapore, etc. Such a system of specialised courts was first introduced in 1895 in the UK as a part of the Queen’s Bench Division of the high court.1 In India, it was considered necessary to establish commercial courts and commercial divisions in order to “(i) accelerate economic growth; (ii) improve the international image of Indian justice delivery system; and (iii) improve the faith of investor world in the legal culture of the nation” (Rajya Sabha 2015: 8).
The need for such a model of courts arose a decade ago, which finds mention in the 188th Law Commission Report (Law Commission of India 2003), wherein the need for “quick enforcement of contracts, easy recovery of monetary claims and award of just compensation for damages was considered critical to encourage investment and economic growth” (Rajya Sabha 2015: 9), the result of which was the Commercial Division of High Courts Bill, 2009.2
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