Supreme Court Questions Centre's Delay In Notifying Commercial Court Rules 2021, Says HCs May Consider Setting Up District Execution Cells
The Supreme Court on Monday (May 25) took serious note of the Union Government's failure to notify the draft Commercial Courts Rules, 2021, observing that the country is facing a “huge challenge” in the effective and expeditious disposal of execution petitions. A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Pankaj Mithal took suo motu notice of the fact that the draft Commercial Courts...
The Supreme Court on Monday (May 25) took serious note of the Union Government's failure to notify the draft Commercial Courts Rules, 2021, observing that the country is facing a “huge challenge” in the effective and expeditious disposal of execution petitions.
A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Pankaj Mithal took suo motu notice of the fact that the draft Commercial Courts Rules, 2021, prepared pursuant to a Ministry of Law and Justice task force on “Ease of Doing Business”, have remained un-notified for nearly four years, and therefore sought an explanation from the Ministry about the delay in notification of the Rules.
“We wish to know, why these Rules have not been notified so far. The draft Rules, 2021 have been framed with a purpose or, to put it in other words, with a particular object. In this regard, we would request Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, the learned Additional Solicitor General to take appropriate instructions from the concerned Ministry and revert on the next date of hearing.”, the court said.
The Court also suggested that if the Centre is unwilling to notify the Rules in the near future, the High Courts may consider establishing District Execution Cells under their supervisory powers under Article 227 of the Constitution. In this regard, the views of all the High Courts were sought by the Court.
“We are already encountering a huge challenge in so far as the effective and expeditious disposal of execution petitions across the country is concerned. We are of the view that the establishment of the District Execution Cell in all the Judicial Districts may help in effective and expeditious disposal of the execution petitions.”, the court observed.
The Court took note of Rule 51, Chapter XII of the Draft Rules titled “Execution of Decree and Establishment of District Execution Cells”, which provides that the High Court shall constitute a dedicated District Execution Cell in all Judicial Districts.
As per the Rule, the Execution Cell shall function under the Nyaya Mitra Scheme of the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India under the administrative control of the Principal District Judge and shall comprise of the following :-
(i) Member Secretary – a retired Judicial Officer or any retired officer Class – I Government Officer with legal background for guiding the Decree Holders in timely execution of decrees, etc;
(ii) Member (Banking) – a serving Officer of a nationalised Bank of the rank not below the Manager for assisting the Member Secretary;
(iii) Member (Revenue) – an Officer drawn from Revenue Services not below the rank of Tehsildar for assisting the Member Secretary; and
(iv) Member (Police) – an officer drawn from the State Police not below the rank of Inspector to assist the Member Secretary
The Registry was directed to circulate copies of the order to the Registrar Generals of all High Courts for placing before the respective Chief Justices to know their views regarding the establishment of District Execution Cells by exercising their supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution.
Cause Title: PERIYAMMAL (DEAD THR. LRS.) & ORS. VERSUS V. RAJAMANI & ANR.
Appearance:
For Petitioner(s) : By Courts Motion, AOR Ms. Mrinal Kanwar, AOR Mr. Vaibhav Rajsingh Rathore, Adv. Mr. Dinesh Kumar Chouhan, Adv.
For Respondent(s) :Mr. Rahul Jain, AOR Ms. Raji Gururaj, Adv. Mr. Kunal Chatterji, AOR Ms. Maitrayee Banerjee, Adv. Mr. Rohit Bansal, Adv. Mr. Varij Nayan Mishra, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Shankar Jain, AOR Mr. Gopal Jha, AOR Mr. Ahanthem Henry, Adv. Mr. Ahanthem Rohen Singh, Adv. Mr. Mohan Singh, Adv. Mr. Aniket Rajput, Adv. Ms. Khoisnam Nirmala Devi, Adv. Mr. Yeshu Mehta, Adv. Mr. Tanay Hegde, Adv. Mr. Ravi Kumar Bodhani, Adv. Mr. Kumar Mihir, AOR Mr. Avneesh Arputham, AOR Mr. Ankit Sharma, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Sudhakar Deshmukh, AOR Mr. Nishant Sharma, Adv. Mr. Ankur Savadikar, Adv. Mr. Kartik Sharma, Adv. Mr. P. I. Jose, AOR Mr. Arjun Garg, AOR Ms. Amruta Arjun Garg, Adv. Mr. Saaransh Shukla, Adv. Ms. Muskan Bensla, Adv. Ms. Mrinmoyee Das, Adv. Mr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, AOR Mrs. Shashi Pathak, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Robin Kumar, Adv. Ms. Shweta Jayshankar Dwivedi, Adv. Mr. Ashish Kumar Sinha, Adv. Mrs. Binita Jaiswal, Adv.