The media has given extensive coverage to experimental research in social sciences in the recent months following the Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Economics prize to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer.

In a 2018 judgment with far-reaching repercussions for litigants and lawyers, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Asian Resurfacing of Road Agency Private Limited v Central Bureau of Investigation (2018 SCC Online 310) has restricted the duration of stays in both criminal as well as civil trials to six months.