Hyderabad: The Telangana state government will soon set up commercial courts for speedy disposal of commercial disputes. Speaking at the Chief Justice-CMs’ conference in New Delhi on Sunday, TS law minister A. Indrakaran Reddy said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was expected to approve setting up of commercial courts soon. These courts will deal with commercial disputes involving claims of Rs 1 crore and above.
He said the TS government was also planning to set up holiday courts, which would work during holidays and also during evening hours when regular courts did not function. When contacted, Mr Reddy said, “Two commercial courts will be set up in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy initially. They will be extended to other districts in a phased manner.”
He said the setting up of commercial courts was in accordance with the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division, Commercial Appellate Division in High Courts Bill, 2015, that was passed by Parliament in December 2015 and became an Act in January 2016. “We will soon write to the High Court requesting it to issue a notification for setting up of commercial courts in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy,” Mr Reddy added.
He said the High Court could constitute a commercial division and notify setting up of commercial courts in the districts headed by district judges or additional district judges. According to the Act, commercial dispute is defined broadly to mean a dispute arising out of ordinary transactions of merchants, bankers, financiers and traders such as those relating to mercantile documents, joint venture and partnership agreements, intellectual property rights, insurance and other areas.
The Act states that all commercial disputes should be resolved within a maximum of 18 months by the proposed court. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech of 2015 had said that for quick resolution of commercial disputes, the government proposed to set up exclusive commercial divisions in various courts in India based on the recommendations of the 253rd report of the Law Commission.
