Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
New Delhi: Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad addresses a press conference on the achievements of the Ministry during 3 years of NDA Government, in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI Photo by Kamal Singh(PTI5_23_2017_000057B)

The Lok Sabha took up the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018, for discussion at 14:10 IST on day ten of the Parliament Monsoon session of 2018.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad moved the bill stating that ‘good governance is also part of a good economy’. He stated that the bill allows the state governments to establish commercial courts at a district level. Bringing into consideration the 214 commercial courts in the country, he shed light on the ‘2000 pending cases of over 1 Crore rupees’. He further stated that the Bill promotes premeditation of disputes.

N.K. Premchandran, a Member of Parliament from Kollam and member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party raised concerns over the ‘compelling situation’ that prompted the government to promulgate such an Ordinance. He also made mention that the government shorten the name of the bill, citing difficulties in him being able to ‘pronounce the words correctly’, especially in a scenario involving him ‘trying to do so in a court’. He further stated that he wasn’t opposed to the bill, but just had his reservations about it.

The Commercial Court Act, 2015 provides the adjudication of commercial disputes by commercial courts and commercial divisions of high courts, with a value of at least 1 crore rupees. The Ordinance reduces this limit to Rs. 3 Lakhs. It further allows state governments to establish commercial courts at the district level, even in territories where high courts have ordinary original civil jurisdiction.

In areas that do not have high courts, the state governments may set up Appellate courts at a district level to consider appeals from commercial courts below the district judge.

On the reduction of the value to Rs. 3 Lakh, Mr. Prasad said the Ordinance would help small businesses, stating that there was a need for an inclusive India where small traders are treated on par with big businesses.

The Law Minister said that the overall number of courts will be increased to 21,153 by 2019. On judicial appointments, he said that the NDA government increased the number of posts in High Courts and Lower Judiciary.

The amended bill was sent for voting and passed by voice vote at 16:35 IST.

By Rahil

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