XKDR Newsletter - Issue 21
Evaluating courts from a litigant's perspective • Substantive hearings in Bombay courts • Profits by bad actors • 14th Emerging Markets Conference • Existence of 'state' and its role & more.
Evaluating courts from a litigant's perspective: A project report
In this report, Pavithra Manivannan, Geetika Palta, Susan Thomas and, Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah, propose the development of an information system that allows a litigant to comparatively evaluate the different forums where she can take her dispute for resolution.
To develop this system, the authors first identify the types of information that can support the decision of a potential litigant on whether to take her matter to court and if yes, which court. They then locate data sources that can provide such information from the viewpoint of periodically publishing such measures in the public domain. For this work, they narrow down the case type to debt disputes.
Quantifiable information about case life cycles was systematically collected from the selected courts' websites, namely, the Bombay High Court (Bombay HC), the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), and the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT). To capture case features that cannot be quantified, a survey was deployed on repeat users of these courts.
Key findings
Litigants seem to care about the following aspects of their experience when dealing with courts - efficiency, fairness, predictability, effectiveness of the relief granted and access to courts.
The analysis of the data disseminated by courts suggests:
A litigant has the lowest chance of getting a first hearing within the first year of filing a case at the Bombay HC (37%) as compared to the NCLT (99.8%) or the DRT (94%).
The NCLT has the highest expected number of hearings within the first year of filing at 4 hearings, while the Bombay HC has the least (not even one hearing may happen within the first year of filing). Expected number of hearings at DRT is about 3.
The chance for disposal within the first year are expectedly slim. There is 1/3rd chance of disposal at the NCLT within one year of filing, while it is less than 1/5th at both the Bombay HC and the DRT.
According to the survey participants, NCLT is ranked the highest on the identified parameters, Bombay HC comes second, and the DRT is ranked third. However, for individual parameters, the ranking changes.
Read the full report here.
How substantial are non-substantive hearings in Indian courts: some estimates from Bombay
A court hearing is either "substantive" or not. Unexpected non-substantive hearings are an important problem in the Indian legal system. Using a hand-created novel dataset of 600 cases from three Mumbai courts that deal with resolution of debt disputes, Pavithra Manivannan, Karthik Suresh, Susan Thomas, and Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah estimate the probabilities of getting an actual hearing once a case is filed.
Key findings
Less than 40% of hearings in a case are ‘substantive’ hearings.
Less than 50% of cases get a first substantive hearing within 1 year of filing the case.
For every 5 hearings at the NCLT, 1 hearing is likely to be substantive. This ratio is at 3:1 for the DRT and 1:1 for the Bombay HC.
Read the full article here.
Vast profits for unpleasant people?
In his column in the Business Standard, Ajay Shah writes on vast profits for unpleasant people. He argues that, speculation on insider trading linked to geopolitical events, such as Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait or the Hamas attack, often lacks substance. The need for substantial resources and the inherent transparency of derivatives markets, make it improbable for state actors or terrorists to profit significantly from such activities. The information systems at the exchanges make large-scale insider trading easily detectable, discouraging attempts due to the high risk of exposure.
Emerging Markets Conference 2023
We co-hosted the 14th edition of the Emerging Markets Conference in December 2023.
Over 4 days of the event, we delved into discussions across an array of domains such as renewable energy, public finance, legal systems, artificial intelligence, firms and banks.
Drawing from a talk at the conference by Arnoud W. A. Boot, University of Amsterdam on the future of banking, Ajay Shah writes for the Business Standard on the forces reshaping banking, and how the Indian banking sector is faring.
Pre-conference event on investibility in the power sector in India
The event co-hosted with TrustBridge Rule of Law Foundation discussed the challenges faced by the industry in the renewable energy sector, and the linkages between the fiscal situation in the states and its impact on renewables investment and economic development.
Everything is Everything
New episodes of Ajay Shah’s YouTube show Everything is Everything with Amit Varma are out:
Seven stories that should be films, Ep 23.
Fixing the knowledge society, Ep 24.
Understanding the State, Ep 25.
When should the State act, Ep 26.
Vaccines from first principle, Ep 27.
We welcome your comments and suggestions on our work. Please write them to pavithra.manivannan4@gmail.com. To know more about our work and to collaborate with us visit xkdr.org.