Ease of Doing Biz: Ordinance on commercial courts may not improve ranking

The courts and commercial divisions set up under the same, consequently, do not have more than two years of experience

The government on May 3 promulgated an ordinance amending the law related to commercial courts in a bid to improve India’s rankings in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report. The ordinance brings two major changes to the existing law — The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division And Commercial Appellate Division Of High Courts Act, 2015 — one, reducing the monetary threshold of registering commercial disputes to Rs 300,000, and two, pre-litigation mediation.

The Cabinet cleared the amendment in March this year. The government press release dated March 7 for the Cabinet decision said "commercial disputes of reasonable value" can be decided