The Central government has urged the Supreme Court to provide the necessary leadership for expeditious and effective resolution of commercial disputes in Delhi and Mumbai lower courts, through e-filing and e-service of summons and adherence to time lines.
In a letter to Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said there were certain issues that could be addressed by the judiciary through its initiatives in the larger interest of efficient and effective delivery of justice.
He said the Supreme Court could provide the necessary leadership for the proper implementation of the existing provisions of the Civil Procedure Code relating to the grant of adjournments, adherence to time lines and electronic filing and electronic service of summons in city courts of Delhi (11) and Mumbai (60) immediately.
“Doing so will go a long way in providing timely and effective enforcement of contracts and this will undoubtedly ensure a marked improvement in our ranking. I would request you to kindly take steps to share this information with the Delhi and the Bombay High Courts and seek their assistance in implementing these measures with utmost priority,” said Mr. Prasad.
Ease of doing business
He said the government accorded high priority to improving the ease of doing business and making India a favourable investment destination for the domestic as well as global investors. Efficient and effective delivery of justice played a key role.
“The World Bank publishes a report on “Doing Business” on annual basis, which compares the business regulations across 190 economies. As per the report published by the World Bank in September 2016, India’s overall ranking improved from 131 in 2016 to 130 in 2017. The overall ranking is an average of the various sub-indicators on the basis of which the countries have been ranked. These sub-indicators include the time taken to start a business, time taken to get construction permits, paying taxes and enforcing contracts,” said the letter.
The “Enforcing Contract” indicator in the report measures the time and cost for resolving a standardised commercial dispute through a local court of first instance, which for the purpose of the ranking is the Delhi district court and Mumbai city civil court as of now.
