The Grama Nyayalayas Bill 2008 Passed in Rajya Sabha

The much awaited Gram Nyayalaya Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 17th December 2008. The media coverage could be found here. The Honorable Union Law Minister H R Baradwaj, said that by the introduction of the “Gram Nyayalayas” the Government seeks to introduce new 5067 odd Courts at the grass root level. The judges sitting as “Nyayadhikaris” would be paid the same salary as that of judges of First Class Judicial Magistrate. 5067 new Courts means 5067 new Judges. It must be noted that our Government always has had problems with filling in the requisite number of posts of judges that remained vacant. Currently there is a vacancy in 18% of the judicial posts. It is actually indigestible for me when the government claims that they are going to add 6000 more judges! The Law Minister had sought the help of PM to send 3000 judges ..! Is our Honourable PM a repository of Judges?

Interestingly, our Law Minister even told the media that within a period of 5 years, India would have the best judicial system in the world.

…Lok Adalat mechanisms…

It is a fact that a large number of civil disputes pending in the courts, and to a small extent petty criminal matters, have been ‘disposed of ’ through the Lok Adalats that are a permanent ‘embedded’ feature of the functioning of legal services authorities. While one point of view sees this as a success, another questions whether the Lok Adalat as presently institutionalized is really a tool of ‘case management’ which essentially addresses the problems of an over-burdened judiciary and not so much as an instrument of justice delivery for the litigant. If the ‘success’ of the Lok Adalat stems from negative reasons attributable to the failures of the formal legal system, the utility of this mechanism may also be short-lived. In other words if the incentive for litigants to accept Lok Adalat decisions is that if they didn’t they would be faced with the prospect of further delays, uncertainties and costs, it constitutes a confirmation for them that the formal legal system is unable to provide an acceptable quality of legal services or justice. This in turn would not augur well for the legitimacy of the system in the long run. What this then means is that there has to be a gradual but conscious effort to offering positive reasons, and not negative ones, for litigants to be willing consumers of the ADR processes.

An ADR system that is both transparent and accountable is in the circumstances imperative in order to make the crucial difference to those presently engaged in the formal legal system which is largely perceived as lacking in this area. As has been pointed out by several speakers, a successful implementation of ADR processes will have to be preceded by an identification of categories of cases or specific dispute areas that are most amenable to their introduction.

Despite the challenges that face the ADR processes today, the benefits in the long run that they are capable of generating appear to outweigh the factors that may in the short run deter their enforcement. We have listened to many positive experiences of ADR in the past few days and this should encourage us to move forward with the reform process. The diverse nature of the country’s population defies any uniform approach or set pattern and this is perhaps the biggest strength of the ADR mechanisms. Their flexibility and informality, the scope they offer for innovation and creativity, hold out the promise of a great degree of acceptability lending them the required legitimacy. Their utility as a case management tool cannot be over emphasized. ADR processes provide the bypasses to handle large chunks of disputes thus leaving the formal legal system to handle the more complex litigation. Even while they do not offer to be a panacea for all the ills of the formal legal system, ADR processes offer the best hope yet of complementing and helping to fortify the formal legal system.

Lets think about this ..........

I'm not sure , how many of you have thought about this , but we come across many "mandatory arbitration clauses"in our daily life. Let's try to list them .

Some of them which come to my mind are : credit cards and other banking services , automobiles , building contracts etc.

please post your entries in the comments section

ADR Conference

The Conference on 'Taking Alternative Dispute Resolution to the Common Man' conducted in ILI, Delhi was successful in identifying the need of using the ADR mechanisms effectively and use it as a tool for seeking justice to the common man. The key speakers included Justice Balasubramaniam, Justice Manmohan Sarin, Justice Madan Lokur,Senior Advocate Krishna Venugopal and Advocate Ramanand Mundkur. The speakers practically concentrated their talks on using of ADR throwing light on Lok Ayuktas and Adalat system.

The open discussion was based on the questions put forward by the audience as to the practical issues involving use of ADR. The Panel effectively answered the questions and put forward their opinions with regard to the burning issues. It is indeed difficult to frame an effective structure for implimenting the subject of Taking ADR to the Common Man. But it is only through useful discussions centered specifically on the subject and research than can lead to pragmatic implimentation of the subject. More importantly there has to be concrete efforts on the part of the legal fraternity, the media, the government and most importantly the laymen for bringing relief to the common man who are burdened themselves to go the courts who are themselves overburdened with cases.