Report No. 253

(i) Model courts

3.6.1 To address some of the problems of the existing judicial system, the advisory council of the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reform constituted a sub-group on Model Courts under the chairmanship of Justice P.V. Reddi, Chairman, Law Commission with the following members: Justice A.P Shah (Retd. Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court), Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon, Dr. Sam Pitroda and Shri Atul Kaushik (Joint Secretary, Department of Justice). The Report of the Sub-Group on Model Courts (hereinafter "Model Court Report") is the outcome of the deliberations of the above-mentioned sub-group.

3.6.2 The Model Court Report came up with the concept of a model court whose core requirements would be efficiency and justice. The five generic principles governing model courts are;

(i) it should be citizen friendly in its access to information;

(ii) it must be efficient in terms of time for litigants;

(iii) it must be fair and just;

(iv) the litigants should be reasonably certain as to when their case would come up for trial; and

(v) when it would conclude.

Recommendations to achieve this were made in three areas, namely process related reforms; physical and technical infrastructure improvement; and grooming of professional and accountable personnel.

3.6.3 The detailed recommendations laid down in the Model Court Report are not repeated here in the interests of brevity but form a useful set of guidelines and principles to be followed in setting up commercial courts in India, especially since commercial courts are also an effort at promoting efficiency and justice in the present justice delivery system. A commercial court will be better equipped to reach its objective of delivering speedy justice to litigants if it is structured and run like a "Model Court" on the basis of the guidelines and recommendations of the Model Court Report.

Back

Index

Next