Commercial tribunals' case backlog ties up 7.5% of India's GDP: Study

Report flags vacancies, procedural gaps, independence issues at commercial tribunals

India’s commercial tribunals are grappling with a mounting backlog of 356,000 cases, worth ₹24.72 trillion, as of September, according to a study by legal think-tank DAKSH. The value of these pending cases amounts to about 7.48 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2024-25, the think-tank estimates in its State of Tribunals 2025 report.

 

Commercial tribunals were initially envisaged as “specialised, quasi-judicial bodies capable of delivering faster and more efficient adjudication”. But successive legislative interventions, chronic vacancies, procedural gaps, and concerns about the independence of these adjudicatory bodies have “steadily eroded their effectiveness”, the report noted. 

For example, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and its appellate body, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which were set up to resolve cases under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, take an average of 752 days to settle a case — more than double the statutory time limit of 330 days. 

Together, the NCLT and NCLAT have more than 18,000 cases pending before them, and rely heavily on contractual staff, which account for 88 per cent and 84.9 per cent of their workforce, respectively. 

The Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs), established to speed up recovery from commercial defaulters, have over 215,000 cases pending. 

More than 86 per cent of these have been outstanding for over 180 days, well beyond the statutory six-month deadline. As many as 18 states do not have a DRT Bench at all, the report highlighted. 

Tax tribunals, such as the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal and the Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, also face a backlog of more than 73,000 cases, with an estimated ₹1.96 trillion. 

The newly launched Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal is expected to soon deal with cases worth ₹2.9 trillion in GST disputes, the report said. 

Sectoral tribunals, including the Securities Appellate Tribunal, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, and the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, “grapple with rapidly expanding mandates, including areas like data protection and energy, without matching investments in capacity”. 

“Beneath these sectoral pressures lie deeper, cross-cutting flaws. Vacancies remain pervasive, Benches frequently operate with a single member, and in some tribunals more than 80 per cent of staff are on temporary contracts,” the report said. 

The Supreme Court recently remarked that the reluctance of retired high court judges to take up tribunal posts was understandable as they are treated “without dignity”.

 

During a hearing on the pendency of appointments in the National Green Tribunal, a Bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan observed that even for basic items such as stationery, retired judges had to raise repeated requests. 

“The most rickety car is given to a tribunal chairperson. Housing, infrastructure, and transport are not in place. How can they be expected to accept such posts?” the court asked the central government. 

The State of Tribunals 2025 report confirmed the lack of basic infrastructure, noting that most commercial tribunals “do not publish dashboards or systematic data on pendency, disposal rates or case timelines”.