India, April 10 -- The Supreme Court's closure of the Sandesara/Sterling Biotech case in December 2025, following a settlement of INR 5,100 crores, has triggered a debate on economic crime enforcement in India. This development, combined with the Jan Vishwas Reforms, indicates that India may be slowly moving from a purely punitive approach to a more pragmatic framework for economic justice.

The Supreme Court treated the Sandesara settlement as a one-time exceptional measure and clearly stated that it should not be treated as a precedent. The Court's caution was understandable. However, the case highlights a larger structural issue in India's economic enforcement system, that is, the absence of a formal institutional mechanism for structu...