Report No. 253

i. Order V, Rule 1(1) and Order VIII, Rule 1 to now provide thirty days to the defendants to file their written statements and an additional ninety days, subject to the satisfaction of the Court and on the payment of costs. However, on the expiry of this ninety day time period (which is one hundred twenty days from the date of summons), the defendants to forfeit their right to file the written statement and the Courts to not allow the written statement to be taken on record.

ii. Disclosure and inspection norms under Order XI to be amended to allow parties (including by interrogatories) to complete the discovery of documents efficiently and to apply to all documents and photocopies of documents in the power, possession, control, or custody of the parties. Further, courts to be empowered to impose exemplary costs against defaulting parties for wilful or negligent failure to disclose all documents, or for wrongful or unreasonable withholding of documents for inspection.

iii. A new procedure for "summary judgment" to be introduced to permit the Courts to decide a claim pertaining to any Commercial Dispute without recording oral evidence, as long as the application for summary judgment has been filed before the framing of issues. Courts are also to be empowered to make "conditional orders" wherever necessary.

iv. A new costs regime of "costs to follow event" to be introduced, with elaborate directions on what constitutes costs and the circumstances the Courts should have regard to while making an order on costs. A successful party to also have costs imposed on it if, for instance, portions of the claim/defence are proved to be frivolous during trial.

v. Changes to the procedure where interest is sought in a suit and to the filing of evidence, and further providing for the verification of pleadings in a commercial dispute.

vi. Elaborate procedures for case management hearing, including consequences for non-compliance with orders to be introduced.

vii. Time bound oral arguments to be supplemented with written submissions to be filed mandatorily within four weeks prior to the commencement of oral arguments.

viii. Courts to be empowered to control, redact, or reject evidence for reasons to be recorded in writing.

ix. Time bound delivery of judgment, within ninety days from the conclusion of arguments, introduced.

x. For suits that have been transferred to the Commercial Court or Commercial Division, the procedural provisions will be applicable only from the point in the trial at which they have been transferred.

xi. Procedural rules to be supplemented by Practice Directions issued by the jurisdictional High Courts.

xii. The Commercial Division and the Commercial Court are to take advantage of new infrastructure, wherever possible, and are to be run as "Model Courts" along the guidelines laid down in the Model Court Report.

xiii. The National Judicial Academy and the State Judicial Academies shall create necessary facilities for the training and continuous education of judges of the Commercial Court or the Commercial Division or the Commercial Appellate Division in a High Court.

xiv. All applications or appeals in international commercial arbitrations concerning commercial disputes of specified value that have been filed in a High Court, are to be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court where such Commercial Appellate Division has been constituted.

xv. All applications or appeals in domestic arbitrations concerning commercial disputes of specified value that have been filed on the original side of the High Court, will be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court where such Commercial Appellate Division has been constituted.

xvi. All applications or appeals in domestic arbitrations concerning commercial disputes of specified value that would ordinarily lie in a Civil Court (not being a High Court), will be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Court exercising territorial jurisdiction over such arbitrations.

xvii. All appeals preferred against any order or decree of the Commercial Division or Commercial Court shall be heard and disposed of by the Commercial Appellate Division of the relevant High Court, preferably within a period of six months from the date of filing of such appeal. The Commercial Appellate Division shall endeavour to dispose of writ petitions, if any filed before it, before it within a similar six-month period.

xviii. No civil revision application or petition shall be entertained against any interlocutory order of the Commercial Court, including an order on the issue of jurisdiction.

xix. Writ petitions and appeals filed in a High Court against the orders of certain specified tribunals (such as the Competition Appellate Tribunal or the Intellectual Property Appellate Board) shall be heard by the Commercial Appellate Division, if the subject matter of such writ or appeal relates to a commercial dispute.

xx. The Law Commission proposes a relook of the court fee regime by the State governments in light of their legislative domain under Entry 3, List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.

[Justice A.P. Shah]
Chairman

[Justice S.N. Kapoor]
Member

[Prof. Dr. Mool Chand Sharma]
Member

[Justice Usha Mehra]
Member

[Dr. S.S. Chahar]
Member-Secretary

[P.K. Malhotra]
Ex-officio Member

[Dr. Sanjay Singh]
Ex-officio Member