17 Mediation and conciliation centres launched in Punjab, Haryana

Chandigarh, Nov 8 (UNI) As many 17 mediation and conciliation centres, nine in Haryana and eight in Punjab. were inaugurated by Supreme Court judge S B Sinha through Tele-conferencing today.

In his inaugural address, he said the mediation and conciliation centres could be the best way to settle disputes and to reduce pendency of court cases.

He said the Mediation was a voluntary non binding process, in which an impartial and neutral mediator assists the parties in reaching an agreement. A mediator does not impose a solution but creates conducive and involvement in which parties could resolve its disputes.

He said the biggest challenge the Indian judiciary was facing today was large number of cases. He said about three crore cases were pending in the courts of the country.

Justice Sinha said increasing the numbers of Judges was one solution to reduce the pendency of the cases but much more was needed to be done to achieve good results and to reduce the pendency of the cases.

These mediation and conciliation centres would help in saving loss of time, money, loss of health and peace of mind, he added.

Speaking on the occasion Justice T S Thakur, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, said ''we must adopt and promote the mechanism of mediation and conciliation.'' He said in 1955 when the court was shifted from Shimla the strength of Judges was eight and pendency of cases were 6,356 but today pendency had increased 30 times.

Justice Thakur said out of 17 mediation and conciliation centres dedicated to the services of the people eight centres were setup in Amrtisar, Ferozepur, Jalandhar, Hashiarpur, Ludhiana, Moga, Patiala and Sangrur districts, all in Punjab, and nine in Faridabad, Gurgaon, Hisar, Jind, Karnal, Kurkushetra, Riwari, Rohtak and Sonipat districts of Haryana.

UNI VKJ LPB VC2141