Notwithstanding the striking progress made in ease of doing business, India continues to lag behind Pakistan, Congo and Sudan when it comes to enforcing contract agreements.

Interestingly, the chapter on ‘Ease of Doing Business — Next Frontier: Timely Justice’ in the latest Economic Survey starts with Sunny Deol’s iconic scream of tarikh-par-tarikh, tarikh-par-tarikh (dates followed by dates followed by dates) to describe the 1.8 lakh cases pending in the six prominent appellate tribunals that deal exclusively with high-stakes commercial matters.

The average age of pending cases across these tribunals is 3.8 years.

The explosion of pendency in telecom and electricity was the result of interventions by the Supreme Court, says the Survey.

The cost overrun in government projects delayed due to stay granted by courts is estimated at ₹52,000 crore. The Ministries of Power, Roads and Railways have been the worst hit.

Similar picture

Since project costs are predominantly debt-financed, it is likely that these have increased by close to 60 per cent given the average duration of stay.

Data collected from the State Bank of India revealed a similar picture for private sector infrastructure projects.

Eco Survey Infra projects

The total backlog in high courts by the end of last year was close to 3.5 million cases, as per the National Judicial Data Grid.

The volume of pending economic cases in ‘smaller than other case categories’ in five major high courts is nearly 4.3 years. The average pendency of tax cases is particularly acute at nearly six years per case.

The special leave petitions filed in the Supreme Court, on extraordinary circumstances, has increased from about 25 per cent in 2008 to nearly 40 per cent in 2016 compared to 3 per cent and 9 per cent in the US and Canada. Of the overall pending cases in the apex court, the plea for special leave accounts for 85 per cent.

IPR cases

In the case of intellectual property rights (IPR) cases, injunctions have led to about 60 per cent of cases being stayed, whose average pendency is 4.3 years.

Nearly 50 per cent of the IPR cases are pending at the stage of pleadings, which is the stage at which parties are required to complete formal requirements before hearing.

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