The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Mediation Centre has helped solve 600 cases, says judge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Mediation Centre has helped solve 600 cases, says judge

Special Correspondent

‘Mediation Week’ in February to spread the message

1,08,463 cases pending in the High Court
In lower courts, it is 10,96,526 cases

Bangalore: Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka Cyriac Joseph has said that an experiment by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority to set up a Mediation Centre has given encouraging results. The centre was established in December 2006.

To take the spirit of mediation further, the authority will organise a “Mediation Week” in February in Bangalore, he said.

Mr. Cyriac Joseph, who was delivering the presidential address at a function to mark Law Day here on Monday, said that the authority had trained 75 lawyers for solving cases by mediation. This system had worked well in the last 10 months and it was time to popularise the concept, he added.

He said that he had information from other States on the working of such centres. The Mediation Centre in the State had performed better by giving respite in 600 cases out of 1,200 cases.

Mr. Cyriac Joseph said that there were 1,08,463 cases pending in the High Court of Karnataka. Of these, only three were over 20 years old. As many as 213 cases were over 10 years old and 714 cases were over seven years old.

There were 10,96,526 cases pending in the lower courts in the State. Only five districts had more than 50,000 pending cases. They were Bangalore Urban 2,93,970 cases, Belgaum 66,743 cases, Mysore 60,000, Shimoga 57,503 and Dakshina Kannada 51,442 cases. The idea of setting up the Mediation Centre was to bring down the number of cases in courts, he added. He appealed to lawyers to promote mediation.

He said that in other States mediation was done by judicial officers but here the authority has infused new life into the system by training lawyers for the job.

He said that in addition the authority has taken up an initiative to run legal aid clinics in 139 taluks in the State. These clinics will impart free legal knowledge to the rural people, he added.

The function was organised by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority and the Advocates Association.

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