Lack of manpower, infrastructure leads to pendency of cases

Bangalore, Aug 27 (UNI) Union Law and Justice Minister Dr H R Bharadwaj today said lack of manpower and infrastructure were leading to piling up of cases in various courts in the country.

Inaugurating a three-day seminar on 'Alternative Dispute Resolution Development Initiative', organised by the International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Regional Centre here, he said ''quick justice is not provided because we do not have enough manpower and proper infrastructure...We are also not in a position to provide alternatives like in the United States, where each court has in-house conciliation which tries to solve the cases through mutual consultation.'' Expressing happiness that the Karnataka High Court had in-house conciliation, the Minister said training was being provided to conciliators in Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh had helped by providing the required land and other infrastructure.

Dr Bharadwaj said people were approaching courts even for petty issues now and the main concern before the Government was how to reduce the cost of litigation, dispose the cases and prevent petty cases from being filed. In 1976, the Lok Adalat was set up to dispose cases that were minor in nature, but that initiative had also not succeeded to the required extent.

Stating that High Court judges were being overburdened, he said he had asked the Supreme Court to form rules as to how much workload a High Court judge could take.

Dr Bhardwaj regretted that the arbitration courts set up for speedy disposal of cases were found most of the time prolonging the cases mainly due to disapproaval by the parties involved or delay tactics adopted by lawyers. ''That is why, I suggest that we should have court rooms for day to day hearing of arbitration cases. Both parties and lawyers should attend hearing to enable speedy disposal of cases.'' Seeking the cooperation of lawyers, he said no system could be successful in reducing the number of cases in courts unless the lawyer community came forward to help the Government.

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