NEW DELHI : Settling commercial disputes may no longer be difficult and costly if government accepts a draft Law Commission bill to set up commercial courts which will deliver judgements in 90 days and impose penalty on parties which fail to disclose relevant documents during a trial.
Amid complaints of delays in settling commercial disputes, the Law Commission has submitted a draft ‘Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts and Commercial Courts Bill, 2015’ to the Law Ministry.
The accompanying report said the draft bill will have a “streamlined procedure” to be adopted for the conduct of cases in the Commercial Division and in the Commercial Court by amending the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) to improve the efficiency and reduce delays in disposal of commercial cases.
“The amended CPC as applicable to the Commercial Divisions and Commercial Courts will prevail over the existing High Court rules and other provisions of the CPC to the contrary,” said the report.
According to the draft, the commercial court will be empowered to conduct a case management hearing where it will have all the necessary powers required to ensure the proper conduct of a trial within a specified time frame.
This will include the power to fix dates for hearing, decide which issues are to be tried and witnesses to be summoned.
“In addition, the court will be empowered to impose costs and other penalties on parties for failure to follow the directions set out in a case management hearing,” the report said.
Some of the important changes proposed to the CPC include allowing parties to complete the discovery of documents efficiently and to apply to all documents and photocopies of documents in the power, possession, control, or custody of the parties. (AGENCIES)
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