It is 5 p.m. in the evening and the day is a Monday. All the Courts in Delhi High Court have risen for the day. Yet there is a part of the building which is abuzz with activity. Litigants big and small, male and female are all gathered there and awaiting their chance to be taking to their opponents. The barrier of silence between the parties has broken down. There are no advocates to advise them regarding how good their case is, (which was happening for the last fifteen years or so). Today they will appear before a neutral Advocate who does not know either of the parties. He will only help them reach a solution. Their advocates will remain present but, will not be allowed to participate. After talking to each other their egos have ________, loss of time, money and even ____________.
Similar situation _______ working out in the mind of outer litigants whose cases are fixed before mediation today.
Late in the evening the Mediation Sessions are over. Some have agreed to give a little, or take a little some are still in process. The Mediation Centre works upto 9 p.m.
As a spectator one is left wondering is _____ same court when hearing is got over in courts at 4:30 p.m. and next date given was after minimum four to six months.
The Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre began in the Year 2006, the idea was floated by Justice Markandey Katju (now a retire judge of the Supreme Court).
A lot was done thereafter to prepare and train Mediators, the first batch of lawyers from the Delhi High Court were trained in a Training Workshop held in March 2006. An Overseeing Committee was framed comprising of Judges and Lawyers. The Centre was formally inaugurated on the 26th of May, 2006.
The Centre was named “Samadhan” meaning Resolution. The centre which made a very humble beginning from a set of two rooms now is equipped with modern state of the art, facilities and has seven rooms. Its own staff a reception area, place for accommodating lawyers and litigants, multi purpose conference room. It also has its own website.
It will be important now to refer to the impressive statistics from the year 2006 to June 2010 (as printed in Samadhan (reflections 2006-2010).
Graph
Mediation Centres are also now operating in almost all district/trial Courts in India. The percentage of cases settled through Mediation ranges between 60% to 75% on an average. Statistical information of all District Mediation Centres from different States is available on the net. In the state of Maharashtra alone the statistical information of all district mediation centres for a period from January ,2011 to December 2011 reveals a very impressive picture, which could be stated hare as an example:
No. of districts No. of matters referred for mediation No. of matters settled No. of matters unfit for mediation No. of matters pending
32 17096 3428 8308 5360
It is a matter of fact that the ____of pending cases in courts all over india became a matter of concern with the government of india sometime in the year 2010 was forced to announce the establishment of a national mission for delivery of justice and legal reforms. The sole task of this mission was to oversee as to how the pendency of the back log in the courts can be reduced by the year 2012. Huge sums of money were sanctioned by that finance commission, to the states in india to improve upon the justice delivery. A large sum was approved for the introduction and improvement of the alternate dispute resolution (ADR) centres (atleast one in every district in the state) through the large number of judicial officers and advocates have been receiving training. Under the “timely justice for all” scheme of the government a number of measures are being taken to reduce the pendency of about 29.1 million cases in courts all over india. It can be safely said that despite the afre mentioned measures the progress has been slow but the movement has began.
1. ( ) 3 R.
2.
3.
4.
