HYDERABAD: Supreme Court judge and Executive Chairperson of National Legal Services Authority Ruma Pal has said that the authority was exploring the possibility of a national programme for training judges, lawyers and mediators to promote alternate dispute resolution in a big way so as to ease the burden on conventional courts.

Inaugurating a workshop on Alternate Dispute Resolution organised as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the AP High Court here on Saturday, Justice Pal said the authority was already taking the help of people trained in the subject abroad who were successfully settling cases in the High Courts of Madras, Gujarat and Bombay. A few days ago, the British Council wished to participate in the process of training mediators.

Huge backlog

She said there was no doubt that an alternative to the present litigation process had to be put in place.

"The patient is in need of an emergency measure. We cannot wait until a modern operating theatre is made available. We can always try for an additional cure", she remarked. The Chief Justice of A.P. High Court G.S. Singhvi felt there was no reason why courts and the alternative disputes resolution mechanism could not co-exist since they had common objectives.

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