NEW DELHI: Senior judge of the Supreme Court Justice NV Ramana suggested a three-pronged action plan to reduce the huge backlog of nearly 4 crore pending cases in courts in the country. Justice Ramana observed that reform of judicial infrastructure through the use of e-platforms and setting up of more courts, settling disputes at the pre-litigation stage through counselling, strengthening the existing Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism would go a long way in clearing the huge pendency of cases in courts.
Justice Ramana, who is presently also the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority, was speaking after inaugurating the first Justice J S Verma Memorial ADR and Client Counselling Competition organised by the Department of Law of the Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies (MAIMS) in association with NALSA.
Favouring lok adalats to settle disputes, the Supreme Court judge said 1.32 lakh cases were settled through mediation using the forum in 2019-20. He batted for making ADR an integral part of the judicial system as litigants are tired of the long-drawn judicial process, while ADR provides a greater degree of control to the litigants in settling disputes.
“The true function of a lawyer is to unite parties riven asunder,” Justice Ramana said quoting Mahatma Gandhi. He lauded the young minds in the legal profession who are bringing a fresh perspective to the system.Supreme Court Judge Justice A M Khanwilkar said lawyers were an integral part of the justice delivery system and emphasised an increased use of pre-litigation mediation and arbitration to settle disputes.
Paying tribute to former Chief Justice of India Verma, he said Justice Verma always advocated impeccable behaviour and self-regulation by judicial officers. Dr N K Garg, founder-chairman of the institute, said Supreme Court judges should hold their posts till life and never retire, which in turn would help in speedy disposal of cases based on their experiences.