India Inc may pay more to jump SC queue

CORPORATE matters may soon get priority redressal in Supreme Court — but at a cost. The government is considering a proposal to set up a separate corporate Bench in the apex court to clear huge pendency of commercial cases. The suggestion being mooted by a parliamentary standing committee, however, requires the industry to cough up higher court fees than what they pay. The cost of the fasttrack mechanism may be as high as 10 times the present fees, which range between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000, or even higher. The new fees may be decided according to the turnover of the companies involved or the litigating amount involved.

    “The proposals, in the final draft phase, are likely to be taken up for consideration of the ministry of law and justice next week, following which steps would be initiated to introduce a Bill in this regard before the monsoon session of Parliament,” in-house panel chairman E M Sudarsana Natchiappan told ET.

    As the apex judiciary is saddled with a huge backlog of cases —March 2008 data puts the pendency at 45,887 — the recommendations are targeted to achieve a two-fold objective: faster disposal of corporate litigation issues and increasing the revenue for the judiciary.

    The panel has proposed an increase in the Bench strength of the Supreme Court.

    “Why do not we have a different court fee structure for the corporates when they are spending crores of rupees in pursuing their appeals? Our proposal is aimed at increasing the revenue for the apex court and provide them a better financial position,” Mr Natchiappan said. On the huge pendency of commercial cases, he said the committee has recommended that corporate should be encouraged to go for alternative dispute resolution methods like arbitration over the time-consuming litigation route.

    World Bank is also providing funds for setting up an effective mediation mechanism in the country, to enable faster settlement of commercial disputes. The government is likely to seek opinion from all stakeholders including the litigants, counsels and media before finalising the decision, he added