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Indian Oil Corporation, IOC, the state-owned oil marketing company, now has around Nine Thousand cases pending in various courts across the country - bulk of them being five to 1 years old! "#n estimated $s %,ooo - 1, crore of funds are stuck in these cases that include ta& and commercial com mercial disputes," says 'eepak 'hawan, (' )*egal+, Indian Oil Corporation! There are around Crore pending cases across the udicial system! #round . sanctioned posts of udge in the /upreme Court and various high courts are waiting to be filled up! #ccording to the 0%rd *aw Commission of India report, submitted in anuary last year, of the total 0,2%2 civil suits pending pending in the five different high courts with original urisdiction, a little more than half )12,33.+ or %1!4 per cent are the commercial disputes! This situation is also reflected in India5s dismal track record r ecord in (ase of 'oing 6usiness $ank )012+ - the country is placed at the 143th position )among 137 countries+ when it comes to enforcing of contracts! In resolving the insolvencies, India is at the 12th place worldwide! 8hen asked on the impact of such high pendency rate of cases in country5s courts, the India legal head of a 9/-head:uartered multinational manufacturing company is :uick to point out that "litigation related to ta& and intellectual property pro perty protection in India is among the biggest concerns from an a n ;NC perspective!" # leading corporate lawyer, closely involved with international ;<# deals, concedes that most foreign clients consider getting entangled in the udicial system as "big" business risk while considering investing in India! ;ost large corporate houses have suffered su ffered a si=able ump in their annual legal budget bu dget over the last four-five years! >or instance, /un ?harma5s annual legal budget has ballooned almost five times - from $s 3 crore in 010 to $s 1,.0. crore in 01%! 01%! The legal e&pense of $eliance Industries too has nearly nearl y doubled between 010 )$s 4.7 crore+ and 01% )$s 1,0.0 crore+! 6oth the e&ecutive and the udiciary - despite mutual differences - realise that desperate times call for some desperate measures! To cut the long shadow of pendency of these cases across the udicial u dicial system, there is a move to re-appoint retired udges on an ad hoc basis bas is to different high courts!
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The government is also in the process of o f e&pediting the appointment process of udges on vacant posts! *egislative measures - such as setting up of new commercial courts in all the states, or amendments of #rbitration and Conciliation *aws are e&pected to infuse fresh blood into the overstretched udicial infrastru cture! @owever, legal e&perts and corporate #dvocates say these measures are only e&pected to show results over the ne&t two to three years! "8e immediately need fasttrack courts to clear commercial disputes, along with special Ta& benches to tackle ta&ation disputes," says #lok ?rasanna Aumar, of Bidhi Centre for *egal ?olicy! Corporate lawyers point out to the success of the two-udge /upreme Court bench of udges # A /ekri and $ohinton Nariman that heard ta& cases for almost whole of year year 01%! In 01%, the ape& court gave out as many as 174 udgements related to ta& laws! This is almost as many as the court cou rt managed in the last three years preceding 01%, notes Aumar! In years 01 and 01., the ape& court could give only % and .7 ta&related udgments, respectively! "ust making improvements in legislation is not sufficient! There is a need to invest in physical udicial infrastructure and appoint more udges across courts" says 'hawan! Clearly, there are miles to go on the road to curtail the shadow of pendency of cases on businesses!
