Reforming tribunals: Rising vacancies at the top are hampering efficiency

Tribunals were set up to offer swift, cost-effective, and decentralised resolution to legal disputes. The principal idea was that these quasi-judicial bodies would comprise members with specific sector expertise to deliver better-informed judgments relatively swiftly, reducing the caseload on regular courts. It is deeply concerning, therefore, to discover that India’s commercial tribunals in particular suffer from the same infirmities as the regular judicial system. According to legal think tank Daksh’s State of Tribunals 2025 report, India’s commercial tribunals face a backlog of 356,000 cases, worth ₹24.2 trillion (as of September). It estimates the value of these cases as amounting to