The main aim behind implementation of The Commercial Court Act, 2015[1] was to give an acceleration to “Make in India” programme by assuring ease of doing business in India and to enable the speedy disposal of high-end commercial disputes. The Act originally enacted as The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 which was re-christened in 2015 by way of an ordinance with amendments to it.

The implementation of Act permits state governments and high courts to assign courts at the high court and area court levels as business courts to hear business matters over a specific monetary worth (at first resolved to be at least Rs 1 crore and later decreased to at least Rs 3 lakh). Once assigned as business courts, these courts were required to keep unique procedural standards and management methods, just as keep up legal insights on organization and removal in an arrangement that would make the usage of the enactment increasingly straightforward[2]. The Act was enacted 5 years ago but to meet its objective and goals it has witnessed several shifts since its implementation. Over the year the law commission has observed that due to high number of cases which are pending with judiciary, hence judicial system is not able to resolve cases in a timely manner, in its 253^rd report Law Commission made recommendation[3], also in  2003 and 2005 it was recommended  that there is a need of specific law  which needs to be enacted to resolve commercial disputes of big companies which have high value by establishing commercial courts, this not only helps judiciary to dispose cases quickly but also creates a trust in businessman and investors to invest in India as it improves Ease of doing business and also the position of country will be upgraded in the ease of doing business index. The implementation of Act was supposed to give a multidimensional benefit in the various fields from law to economic. Finally, the Act was enacted in 2015 as a significant step towards expeditious disposal of cases and for same the amendment was done to CPC by enacting the Act but now when we are seeing the position of Act after 5 years from its implementation now, the Act is not able to cater for which it was made and that’s why we already have proposed a Bill for the amendment to the Act of 2015.

The Act has implemented but its is not able to address the challenges of the poor litigation culture in India, it is erratic and haphazard as it is contradiction with the reforms for commercial litigation. The Act and amendment to CPC was introduced for the betterment of commercial litigation and to resolve the disputes more effectively but the end is not achieved there are many reasons for same, we also don’t have to forgot that the Act  allows for designation of specific courts for commercial disputed but we also have to take cognizance that the judges in that court must be those who have proven expertise in handling disputes pertaining to commercial matter and have sound knowledge of it. Many a times the most common comment that was attested by experienced litigators that they heard in court is “there is no urgency in your matter; you can always be compensated by interest and costs[4]” in the matters related to commercial disputes.

If the implementation Act meets the objective and goals for which it was enacted then it would become a game changer, it may change the age-old views of court for commercial matters. Chief Justice also had taken a clarion call on implementation of Act so there is need for introspection on some of the provisions of the Act.

References:

1] From: https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/2019/07/05/commercial-courts-act-2015-an-empirical-impact-evaluation/

2] From: https://www.bloombergquint.com/opinion/commercial-courts-a-failure-in-implementation

3] From: https://www.barandbench.com/columns/commercial-courts-act-promise-reality

[1] http://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/A2016-4_1.pdf

[2] https://www.bloombergquint.com/opinion/commercial-courts-a-failure-in-implementation

[3] http://www.lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/main.htm

[4] https://www.barandbench.com/columns/commercial-courts-act-promise-reality