“Gram Nyayalayas” as an ADR method

The Law Commission in its 114^th Report, 1986 suggested the idea of “Gram Nyayalayas”as an alternate method to take justice to the “aam admi” and to reduce the backlog of cases. These “Nyayalayas”(courts) will have jurisdiction to hear and settle cases of the particular “gram”(village). They are alternate in the sense, they don’t follow ordinary procedural rules, parties need not be represented by lawyer’s and most cases would be settled rather than adjudicated.

The commission concluded that the results of Lok Adalats and other previous methods have been mixed. However, the National Advisory Council (NAC) , took up the issue and a Gram Nyayalayas Bill, 2007 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha , on 15^th May , 2007 which was widely criticized . Recently, a modified version of the Bill was also presented in the Rajya Sabha.

The Highlights of the Bill were:

• Each Gram Nyayalaya will have a “Nyayadhikari” who will be having the powers of a first class magistrate , to be selected from a cadre created by Governor and State Government
• These Nyayalayas would deal with ordinary civil cases, those cases were the maximum imprisonment is one year and other compoundable offence.
• Parties can go on appeal from the decisions of the “nyayadhikari” to the senior civil judge or the respective magistrate.

It should be noted that, we had a system of “Gram Nyayalayas” even before independence, where the representatives were elected from the local community. However, this legislation envisages six thousand legally qualified “nyayadhikaris” across the country. Isn’t this legislation creating yet another judicial cadre at a time when eighteen percent of the existing judicial posts are vacant.

Interestingly, the bill also excludes cases involving government servants from the jurisdiction of “gram nyayalyas” thereby making it toothless. There also exists a doubt whether this system is truly “alternative” in its character since bill says that each qualified “nyayadhikari” will be assisted by two other “lay –nyayadhikari” again from a cadre and the parties in this case don’t have the right to choose their mediator’s, unlike other ADR mechanisms.