Supreme Court Specifies Need for Compulsory Training for Presiding Officers of Commercial Courts

The Supreme Court outlined the requirement that Presiding Officers of Commercial Courts undergo mandatory training before being posted in a case concerning the application of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.

Indian Commercial and Arbitration Bar Association (ICABA) , the petitioner filed the writ petition before the Supreme Court regarding matters pertaining to implementation of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.

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The Court requested that the Union of India provide an update on the state of commercial court constitutions in the various states and Union Territories when the case was heard in 2023. The Court asked High Courts nationwide to provide information on the number of ongoing business disputes and the resources available to handle them in February of this year.

The court noted that presiding officers of commercial courts ought to receive some training, orientation, or refresher courses to inform them of the types of commercial disputes that are pending in a given [state or region] and the significance of resolving them quickly because their prolonged pending status has a ripple effect on the country's economy as well.

Before the Supreme Court were the details provided by the High Courts in accordance with previous directives. But, because it felt it was necessary, it requested more details on a few other points. After one of the present attorneys made a proposal, the Court expanded the order to include state commercial benches of High Courts with original jurisdiction.

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A division bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh was addressing a petition submitted by the Indian Commercial and Arbitration Bar Association, which sought guidance for the Commercial Courts Act, 2015's time-bound implementation. The ICABA brought attention to the inadequate infrastructure and insufficiency of commercial courts and commercial appellate benches in resolving business disputes through the petition.

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Justice Kant noted that officers handling business issues have no particular training from any of the High Courts. "These white elephants of judicial academies are there, infrastructure is not being properly utilized...you need to have some training courses...[officers] can be imparted atleast 1 month, 2 months training in the judicial academy before their posting and then they should be asked to have periodical refresher courses on every weekend...".the bench viewed.

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