Delhi High Court directs setting up of 42 commercial courts within 6 months

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the city government and others to set up 42 commercial courts in the national capital, within six months, in order to expedite the speedy disposal of commercial disputes.

The direction came as it heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by advocate Amit Sahni, in which he had stated that 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.

Delhi takes 747 days in deciding a commercial dispute against the world's best practice for disposal of commercial disputes, which is 164 days, he said in the PIL.

Directing the respondents to implement the matter within 6 months, a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad also granted liberty to Sahni to approach it again if the order is not complied with in a timely manner.

The Delhi government submitted that a meeting has been convened with the PWD in this regard and ensured it will strictly follow the time frame.

"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.

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 to provide 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.