Huge amount of funds locked up due to litigation: Natchiappan

More than 2.5 crore cases involving Rs 4 lakh crore are currently pending at different stages in various courts across the country, Justice Natchiappan, Head of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice said here today.
Natchiappan told reporters at a press conference here that the committee would decide about setting up District Commercial Courts to deal with all cases of a commercial nature by July end.
"There is huge number of backlog cases pending. More than 2.5 crore cases are pending from subordinate courts in the Supreme Court. Around 320 posts of high court judges as against a total 740 posts, are to yet to be filled up," he said.

"There is no direct data but more or less at least one crore of commercial cases are pending in courts. These cases have locked up huge funds of public sector banks and undertakings. It costs more than Rs 2 lakh crore in different sectors. Similarly, though we don't have statistics, nearly Rs 2 lakh crore of private sector funds are locked up," he said.
The committee met Hyderabad High Court judges and senior officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Government today.
Answering a query, he said that the committee is yet to visit some of the states to assess views of various stakeholders about setting up commercial courts.

"We have been asked to submit a report within two months. We have until July last week (more or less) to submit the report," he said.
He said that once Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, 2015, is passed as well as implemented, it would fast-track commercial litigation.