New laws to settle civil, biz disputes faster

NEW DELHI: The law ministry is preparing a legal framework to reduce the time taken for settling commercial and civil disputes in India — an important consideration in the Doing Business rankings — by bringing in a mediation law and reducing “the intervention of the court” in the entire process, a top official involved in the exercise has said.

The ministry wants to push for the said laws in the budget session of Parliament which resumes on Monday.

“Key among these is creating legal backing for mediation to reduce the court’s intervention in commercial disputes and tackle pendency,” the officer revealed. The average time taken for a commercial dispute to get resolved in the country is 1,445 days (over four years), he added.

The move envisages amending the Arbitration and Conciliation Act (ACA), the Commercial Courts Act, the Specific Relief Act as well as pushing for passage of a new law to create a New Delhi International Arbitration Centre. The bills for changing the specific relief act and to create the state-of-the art arbitration centre are pending in Parliament since the winter session.

The country got its first arbitration law, the ACA, in 1996 which was amended in 2015 after the Bjp-led NDA government came to power. The government also brought in the Commercial Courts Act in 2015 to create special courts to deal with commercial disputes but pendency and long proceedings remain a concern.

THE TIME TAKEN TO SETTLE DISPUTES IS A KEY CONSIDERATION IN THE DOING BUSINESS RANKINGS, WHERE INDIA WANTS TO IMPROVE