The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Mediation centre inaugurated

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Friday, Jun 22, 2007
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Mediation centre inaugurated

Staff Reporter

Bangalore needed such a centre, says Chief Justice of India

In conversation: Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan (right) having a word with Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Cyriac Joseph at the inauguration of ‘Nyaya Degula’ in Bangalore on Thursday. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and D eputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa are with them.

Bangalore: Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan on Thursday inaugurated the ‘Nyaya Degula’ and Bangalore Mediation Centre for early settlement of disputes, saving money, time, energy as well as relationship between the litigant public.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Balakrishnan said that people, particularly litigants, would have confidence in the judiciary when such serious efforts were made to give relief to their problems. He said that litigants, who had crossed 80 years used to write letters pleading with him to do something to clear his case pending for decades.

Because of the serious procedural problems such as the adversarial nature in which the Indian courts were working, the Chief Justice said that it would be very difficult to clear the huge pendency in all courts. In this system, he said the parties have to be heard, which consumed a lot of time.

Mr. Balakrishnan said that there were 2.5 crore cases pending in subordinate courts, 58 lakh cases in the various High Courts and 31,000 cases in the apex court. He said that Bangalore city was booming and the price of land was skyrocketing and needed such mediation centre.

Cyriac Joseph, Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, presided over the function.

Though it has been working since January 1 this year, it was shifted to the new building complex on H. Siddaiah Road, on Thursday.

Ashok Bhan, judge, Supreme Court, who outlined the importance of the mediation centre in speedy disposal of cases said the Bhagalpur blinding case took 17 years to complete. He said at least six times the number of present strength of the judges in the country had to be appointed to backlog. The centre, he said would go a long way in wiping the tears of the litigant public.

R.V. Raveendran, judge, Supreme Court, exhorted mediators and lawyers to keep the interest of the litigants in mind than living in their egoism. Citing how tennis stars Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi lost the doubles, some years ago, he said that the duo played in unison initially and later developed egoism, losing the matches.

He advised the judges to apply their mind before referring the cases to the Mediation Centre. Cases involving fraud and money matters or those where the litigants wanted them to be settled in the courts should not be referred. Otherwise, he warned that the Mediation Centre would become unpopular.

Prominent among those who attended the function were Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa, Law and Home Minister M.P. Prakash, Public Works and Energy Minister H.D. Revanna, S.R. Bannurmath, V. Gopala Gowda, Chidananda Ullal, judges of the Karnataka High Court, Uday Holla, Advocate-General, and D.L. Jagadish, president of the Bangalore Advocates Association.

Mr. Bannurmath, who welcomed, thanked Mr. Cyriac Joseph for his persuasion in getting the centre opened for the benefit of the litigants. He said that unlike in the New Delhi Centre where the mediators had been drawn from the judiciary, in Bangalore 55 lawyers experienced in dispute settlement skills, law and communication had been made mediators. They have been given training by experts in mediation from San Francisco. He said that the centre had a reputation of solving a record number of 277 cases out of 839 cases in less than six months, which accounted for 48 per cent.

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