Parliament Diary

The Lok Sabha discussed and passed the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Divisions of High Courts (Amendment) Bill today. It amends the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 that was enacted to fast track the disposal of high value commercial disputes (above rupees one crore), by establishing commercial courts at the district level, and commercial divisions and commercial appellate divisions in high courts.  The Bill reduces this monetary jurisdiction of commercial courts from one crore rupees to three lakh rupees.

Some of the issues that were raised during the discussion was that there will be an increase in the number of cases transferred to commercial courts due to a lower monetary threshold. Some argued this transfer of commercial disputes above three lakhs may lead to overburdening the commercial courts The question of increased vacancy of judges and its impact on pendency of cases was raised to question the efficacy of this Bill.  

The following graph illustrates how pendency in judicial cases has increased:

To know more about the status of pendency of cases and judge vacancies in High Courts and subordinate courts, refer to our vital stats here.

While Lok Sabha has been functioning smoothly so far in the session, Rajya Sabha lost time due to frequent interruptions this week.