Doing Business in India - RSM Austria

4.2 Legal Environment
The main sources of law in India are the Constitution statutes, customary laws and
case laws. The country’s constitution provides for a single integrated system of
courts to administer both Union and state laws. The judiciary in India is separated
from the executives.
At the apex of the entire judicial system is the Supreme Court of India, which
consists of the Chief Justice and other judges. The Supreme Court has original,
appellate and advisory jurisdiction and its decisions are binding on all courts within
the territory of India. Each state (or two or more states together) has a High Court, a
Chief Justice of the High Court and other judges who are appointed by the President
in consultation with the Governor of the state. There is a hierarchy of subordinate
courts under the various High Courts, which extend to the local courts, which decide
civil and criminal disputes of petty and local nature.
5.0 INFRASTRUCTURE
5.1 Transport
Internal public transportation in India is fairly well developed. The country is
extensively covered by rail and road networks. This surface transport network is
fairly supplemented by airline routes connecting the major cities.
The Indian Railways, which is the largest public sector undertaking in India, is the
backbone of the Indian Economy. It caters to both freight and passenger traffics and
has a vast network of 6,867 stations spread over route length of about 62,900 kms.
It is Asia’s largest and the world’s second largest railway system under a single
management.
India has the second largest road network in the world with total road length of 3.3
million kms. In 2009, freight traffic on the road is also fairly high and remains almost
exclusively in the private sector.
Inland water transport has not grown appreciably in the country because of poor
port or landing infrastructure. However, the industry is now growing and the
government is ambitiously developing coastal shipping.
India has bilateral air services agreements with over 100 countries. Air India is
India’s official national carrier operating across both domestic and international
routes. In 2007, Indian Airlines the domestic national carrier was merged with Air
India. Indian Airlines also operates on some international routes. Upon the
liberalization of the economy, an open sky policy was announced which has resulted
in a number of private air taxi companies operating on some of the major trunk
routes. Some of the major private air transport companies, operating on domestic
and international routes are Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, Indigo, Spice jet etc.
DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA 3