BANGALORE: In the next few days, the judiciary in the State is all set to adopt a novel endeavour to not only reduce the pendency of cases but also ensure that the common man gets expeditious justice.

The new initiative has come into being with amendment to the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) and it will be an integral part of the judicial system. Both the State Government and the Karnataka High Court have given their consent to the initiative.

While the State has gazetted the amendments to Section 89 of the CPC, the High Court has notified the rules governing it. The new rules have come into force and they will be applied to all cases.

Termed as the Civil Procedure (Alternative Dispute Resolution) (Karnataka) Rules, 2005, the rules deal with the procedure for directing parties in a dispute to opt for alternative modes of settlement. The amendment provides the litigants a four-pronged choice to resolve their dispute. They could opt for arbitration, mediation, Lok Adalat or conciliation. In case, the litigants fail to arrive at a consensus on choosing one of the four, the judge can ask them to go in for one of them.

The Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, Cyriac Joseph, told The Hindu that the High Court had been giving importance to mediation as it was inexpensive and it involved both advocates and judges.

He said 24 advocates from Bangalore had been trained in the craft of mediation by experts from the U.S. and that 100 cases from the City Civil Court, Bangalore, had been referred to in the last few days for mediation.

He said the mediation proceedings would be held at the Karnataka Judicial Academy on Crescent Road and in the next few months it would move to its own building. Simultaneously, two other batches of Bangalore-based advocates would be imparted training in mediation.

The Chief Justice said judicial officers in the City Civil Court had been trained in mediation and it would be subsequently extended to other district courts. Advocates from other districts too would be trained in mediation.

He said the mediation proceedings would involve three advocates as against two advocates now fighting a case in a court.

Once advocates for the two parties agreed on advocate-mediator, the case would be placed before him.

The advocates of the parties would argue the case before the mediator and if an agreement was reached, it would be placed before the court, which had referred the case for mediation.

The mediation rules stipulate that the courts of Principal District and Sessions Judges shall prepare a panel of mediators within 60 days of the rules coming into force. The copies of the panels shall be circulated to all courts under the jurisdiction of the district court.

Retired Supreme Court, High Court and District Court judges, advocates with at least 15 years experience and mediation experts can be empanelled as mediators.

The mediators are not bound by the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 or CPC, 1908 but shall be guided by the principle of fairness and justice.

Time limit

The mediation proceedings have been set a time limit of 60 days from the first appearance of the parties.

The mediation will be suspended unless the parties or the mediator or the court extends the time. The mediation proceedings are private and only the parties and advocates can attend. Others can attend provided the parties or the mediator permit.

The rules envisage payment of a fee to the mediator and the Chief Justice says the High Court will set up a corpus fund from which a mediator will be paid. The rules stipulate certain ethics to be followed by the mediators.

The judiciary is hopeful that the amendment to the CPC and the craft of mediation will substantially reduce the pendency of cases.

Bigger scope

It feels that while some alternatives to the court such as Lok Adalats have met with a fair degree of success, it is limited to only motor vehicle (MV) and cheque bounce cases, leaving other civil cases to be adjudicated by the courts. More importantly, the initiative, which commenced on Saturday, is likely to find favour with judges and advocates alike as they are central to its sustenance.

Two advocates, Aravind Kumar and K.N. Putte Gowda, who were imparted training in mediation for 40 hours, have given thumbs up for the new technique.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail