The Supreme People's Court ("SPC") has recently issued the Provisions on Strict Limits on Extending Trial Periods and Delaying Opening Court Sessions for Civil and Commercial Cases (the "Provisions"), with effect from April 26, 2018.
The Provisions set out rules to strictly regulate the filing of applications for extending the trial periods for approval, impose tough restrictions on putting off the date to open a court session, promptly notify litigants of relevant procedural information, and legally deal with acts performed to put off the pace of case handling. Targeting problems that delay in handling cases may arise in judicial practices, the Provisions, on one hand, strengthen the internal supervision and restraints over the judicial authority, adding that formalities to submit and examine applications will be regularized vigorously to ensure the whole-process supervision and administration of the quality and efficiency of judicial trials; on the other, people's courts are required to receive external oversight, promptly inform litigants of the need to shorten, extend or recalculate the trial period and of the situation about the postponed court trials and causes thereof, and intensify judicial transparency in important procedural information; furthermore, it is stipulated that litigants and their statutory agents and agents ad litem may apply to the people's courts accepting their cases for oversight.