New Delhi- The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response of the Delhi government and others on a plea seeking implementation of its notification approving an additional 42 commercial courts in order to expedite disposal of commercial disputes.
Issuing notice on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL), a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Navin Chawla sought status reports in relation to the availability of court infrastructure, judicial officers, and courtrooms, and posted the matter for further hearing on July 5.
Stressing the need for setting up of proposed 42 additional commercial courts in the national capital, petitioner, advocate Amit Sahni, stated that Delhi takes 747 days in deciding a commercial dispute against the world’s best practice for disposal of commercial disputes, which is 164 days.
Mumbai, on average, takes only 182 days, the petitioner said in the PIL.
“Delhi courts have been over-burdened, as per the data available on the official website of district courts, Delhi, till February 2022, there are 26,959 cases pending in 22 commercial courts functioning in Delhi district courts,” as per the petitioner.
An additional 42 courts, as approved by the Delhi government on March 22, 2021, and subsequently notified on April 13, 2021, have yet to come up, it said, adding that the issue involved in the petition is in the larger public interest as it would not only reduce the burden of commercial courts at Delhi but the same would also ensure speedy justice to the commercial dispute matters.
The delay caused in the dispensation of justice has been taken note of by High Courts and the Supreme Court from time to time and directions have been issued to recruit the pending vacancies in different courts of the country, the plea pointed out.
In order to expedite the justice delivery system at least concerning commercial disputes, the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division, and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 has been passed by the government, which provides for a separate set of commercial courts to be set up by the state governments at the district level to try suits and claims pertaining to commercial disputes, it stated.
–IANS
Comments are closed.