The Hindu : New Delhi News : Trivia turning into bizarre

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Saturday, Aug 21, 2010
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Trivia turning into bizarre

Several years ago a police officer in the posh Greater Kailash area was confronted by a bizarre case. The matter pertained to a longstanding fight between two neighbours, both of whom worked for multinational companies. When the officer enquired about the bone of contention, he was surprised to know that it was all about a silly dispute over placement of some flowerpots.

Such cases that mainly start with mundane matters are now being reported more frequently. These complaints range from disputes over parking space, drainage system, water and even a trivial issue like seepage. And such disputes now have an increasingly violent fallout. In fact, a young man was recently pushed down from the second floor of a building by a neighbour over the parking issue and an old woman and her son were allegedly attacked and beaten up by a father-son duo over a similar matter in Mukherjee Nagar. In South Delhi, following an altercation over car parking, a woman alleged that a lawyer attacked her with an intention to molest her and accordingly he was booked.

While investigations are underway to ascertain the veracity of the woman's allegation, a police officer says in many cases in civil disputes, the complainants level serious charges against the other party to convert the matter into a criminal case, which attracts punishment.

“So much so that a person had got a robbery case registered against the other following a parking row. A decade ago, a Station House Officer was suspended following a dispute between two neighbours in the same building over dripping of water from the air-conditioning system. One of the parties turned out to be influential,” recounted a police officer.

Senior advocate Surat Singh says a case of dispute over parking space between two neighbours in Greater Kailash has been going on since 1993 and the unrelenting parties have even got criminal cases registered against each other.

Stating that several of these cases are the fallout of an imbalance between increasing population and the available civic infrastructure, Deputy Commissioner of Police O.P. Mishra says the gap creates contradictions and conflicts that have a tendency of taking the shape of a law and order issue.

Given that even minor disputes, civil in nature, have the potential to turn into cognisable offence if left unaddressed by the delivering agencies, there is a need to take pro-active steps to resolve the contradictions expeditiously and amicably.

“Alternative dispute resolution through mediation centres has emerged as an effective medium to deal with cases that are compoundable in nature. Through mediation centres, which have been functioning at the Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Rohini and Dwarka district courts and the Delhi High Court, disputes can be resolved promptly,” suggests Dr. Singh, adding that people should be encouraged to opt for mediation centres.

While in the adversarial system, the lawyers and the police are the main beneficiary and the power is distributed among them, Dr. Singh says the need is to go for a more inclusive system like mediation where affected parties can explore areas of common interests and work around them.

Devesh K. Pandey

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