Lok Sabha Question No. 160 (STARRED), answered on 2022-12-16
Subject: Disposal of Cases through ADR System
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Jagdambika Pal, Vincent H Pala

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LAW & JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *160 TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 16 TH  DECEMBER, 2022

## DISPOSAL OF CASES THROUGH ADR SYSTEM

*160. SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL: SHRI VINCENT H. PALA:

Will the Minister of LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is considering to dispose all compoundable cases older than 20 years through Alternative Dispute Resolutions (ADR) system;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (c) the details of the initiatives taken by the Government to reduce the burden of cases  from  the  courts  and  also  to  make  the  system  of  delivering  of  justice  to  the citizens faster; and
- (d) the details of the initiatives taken by the Government to promote ADR system in the country during the last five years?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE

## (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

- (a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (A)  TO  (D)  OF  LOK SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *160  FOR  ANSWER  ON  16.12.2022 REGARDING 'DISPOSAL OF CASES THROUGH ADR SYSTEM'.

(a) (b) & (d): The Government has been at the forefront of promoting Alternative Dispute  Resolution  Systems.  The  enabling  legal  framework  for  resolution  of  disputes through  Alternative  Dispute  Resolution  (ADR)  has  been  provided  under  Section  89, Civil  Procedure  Code,  1908.  Section  89  recognises  four  modes  of  ADR  namely, Arbitration,  Conciliation,  Judicial  Settlement  including  settlement  through  Lok  Adalat and Mediation. It provides for the court to refer a dispute for settlement by either of these modes,  where  it  appears  that  there  exist  elements  of  a  settlement,  which  may  be acceptable to the parties.

The Mediation Bill, 2021, which has been introduced in the Parliament, stipulates a  provision  under  Clause  7,  which  states  that  courts  may,  if  deemed  appropriate refer inter-alia any  dispute  relating  to  compoundable  offences  to  mediation.  However, the  outcome  of  such  mediation shall  be  further  considered  by  the  court  in  accordance with the law for the time being in force. Therefore, the provisions of the Mediation Bill, 2021  enable  and  recognise  settlement  of  compoundable  offences  in  terms  of  the provisions contained therein.

The  Government  is  promoting  ADR  mechanisms  including  arbitration  and mediation as these mechanisms are less adversarial and are capable of providing a better substitute  to  the  conventional  methods  of  resolving  disputes.  The  use  of  ADR mechanisms is also expected to reduce the burden on the judiciary and thereby enable timely justice dispensation to citizens of the country. Some of the major initiatives over the years in this regard include:-

The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 was enacted to consolidate and amend the  law  relating  to  domestic  arbitration,  international  commercial  arbitration  and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards as also to define the law relating to conciliation and  for  matters  connected  therewith.  To  keep  pace  with  current  developments  in  the arbitration landscape and to enable arbitration as a viable dispute resolution mechanism, the Indian arbitration law has undergone significant changes in the years 2015, 2019 and 2021. The changes are enabled to signal a paradigm shift for ensuring timely conclusion of arbitration proceedings, minimizing judicial intervention in the arbitral process and enforcement of arbitral awards.

The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 provided for expeditious, fast track and time bound arbitral proceedings, neutrality of arbitrators and cost effective delivery mechanism. This was followed by the Arbitration and Conciliation  (Amendment)  Act,  2019  with  the  main  objective  of  giving  boost  to institutional  arbitration  and  to  reduce  the  share  of  ad-hoc  arbitration  in  the  country. Further,  Section  34  of  the  Act  was  amended  vide  the  Arbitration  and  Conciliation (Amendment)  Act,  2021,  which  provides  for  unconditional  stay  of  enforcement  of arbitral awards where the underlying arbitration agreement, contracts or making of the arbitral award are induced by fraud or corruption, besides giving power to Arbitration Council of India, to lay down qualifications, experience and norms for accreditation of arbitrators, by regulations.

The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 was amended in the year 2018 to provide for Pre-Institution  Mediation  and  Settlement  (PIMS)  mechanism.  Under  this  mechanism, where a commercial dispute of specified value does not contemplate any urgent interim relief,  the  parties  have  to  first  exhaust  the  mandatory  remedy  of  PIMS  before approaching  the  Court.  This  is  aimed  at  providing  an  opportunity  to  the  parties  to resolve the commercial disputes through mediation.

Rooted in the tradition of 'People's Court', the concept of Lok Adalat has been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. Lok Adalat can take  up  any  kind  of  Civil  matters  and  all  Criminal  Compoundable  matters,  whether pending in a court or at the Pre-Litigative  stage.    The  award  made  by  Lok  Adalat  is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal lies against the Award before any court. During the COVID pandemic, the Legal Services Authorities (LSAs) innovatively leveraged technology and introduced E-Lok Adalat,  wherein  affected  parties  couldget  their  matter  resolved  without  physically visiting the venue of the Adalat.  E-Lok Adalat is a process to settle disputes, combining technology  and  alternative  dispute  resolution  ('ADR')  mechanisms  which  offers  a faster, transparent and accessible option.

(c): Disposal of pending cases in courts lies within the domain of the judiciary.  No time frame has been prescribed for disposal of various kinds of cases by the respective courts.  Government  has  no  direct  role  in  disposal  of  cases  in  courts.  Several  factors come into play while disposing of the cases in courts, such as, availability of adequate number of judges and judicial officers, supporting court staff and physical infrastructure,  complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, co-operation of stake holders viz. bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures. Apart from these, other contributory factors that delay the disposal include, vacancies of judges, frequent adjournments and lack of adequate arrangement to  monitor,  track  and  bunch  cases  for  hearing.  The  Central  Government  is  fully committed to speedy disposal of cases in accordance with Article 21 of the Constitution and reducing pendency.

National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms was set up in August, 2011 with the twin objectives of increasing access by reducing delays and arrears in the system and enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards  and  capacities.    The  Mission  has  been  pursuing  a  co-ordinated approach  for  phased  liquidation  of  arrears  and  pendency  in  judicial  administration, which, inter-alia, involves  better  infrastructure  for  courts  including  computerization, increase in strength of subordinate judiciary, policy and legislative measures in the areas prone  to  excessive  litigation,  re-engineering  of  court  procedure  for  quick  disposal  of cases and emphasis on human resource development.

The major steps taken during the last eight years under various initiatives are as follows:

## (i) Improving infrastructure  for  Judicial  Officers  of  District  and  Subordinate

Courts: A  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  (CSS)  for  Development  of  Infrastructure Facilities for the Judiciary has been in operation since 1993-94. Under the Scheme, so far,  Rs.  9291.79  has  been  released.  The  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  (CSS)  for Development of Infrastructure  for  Judiciary  has  been  extended  till  2025-26  at  a  total cost of Rs. 9,000 crores, out of which the central share will be Rs. 5,307 crores. The scheme  covers  construction  of  court  halls, residential unit, lawyers  halls, toilet complexes  and  digital  computer  rooms.  There  are  21,159  court  halls  and  18,557 residential units made available under the scheme so far.

## (ii) Leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for

improved justice delivery: Under the e-Courts Mission Mode Project under implementation  throughout  the  country,  information  and  communication  technology outreach has been extended to the district and subordinate  courts  with  WAN connectivity having been provided to 99.3% of court complexes. Apart from this, a new and  user-friendly  version  of  Case  Information  Software  has  been  developed  and deployed  at  all  the  computerized  district  and  subordinate  courts.  All  stakeholders, including  judicial  officers,  now  have  access  to  plethora  of  information  w.r.t  judicial proceedings/decisions  on  the  National  Judicial  Data  Grid  (NJDG).  A  series  of  IT enabled  services  such  as  eCourts  web  portal,  Judicial  Service  Centres  (JSC),  eCourt Mobile  App,  SMS  push  and  pull  services  have  facilitated  easy  access  to  all  sorts  of information  such  as  case  registration,  cause  list,  case  status,  daily  orders  &  final judgments to the litigants and advocates.

Video conferencing facility has been enabled between 3,240 court complexes and 1,272 corresponding jails. Virtual hearings have been effectively adopted during COVID-19 pandemic  and  as  of  now  21  virtual  courts  have  been  set  up  in  17  States/UTs  as  on 03.03.2022, these courts have handled more than 1.69 crore cases.

- (iii) Filling up of vacant positions in Supreme Court, High Courts and District

and Subordinate Courts: From 01.05.2014 to 05.12.2022, 46 Judges were appointed in Supreme Court. 853 new judges were appointed and 621 additional judges were made permanent in the High Courts. Sanctioned strength of Judges of High Courts has been increased from 906 in May, 2014 to 1108 currently. sanctioned and working strength of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts has increased as follow:

| As on      | Sanctioned Strength   | Working Strength   |
|------------|-----------------------|--------------------|
| 31.12.2013 | 19,518                | 15,115             |
| 12.12.2022 | 25,011                | 19,192             |

However, filling up of vacancies in subordinate judiciary falls within the domain of the State Governments and high courts concerned.

## (iv) Reduction  in  Pendency  through  /  follow  up  by  Arrears  Committees: In

pursuance  of  Resolution  passed  in  Chief  Justices'  Conference  held  in  April,  2015, Arrears Committees have been set up in High Courts to clear cases pending for more than  five  years.    Arrears  Committees  have  been  set  up  under  District  Judges  too. Arrears  Committee  has  been  constituted  in  the  Supreme  Court  to  formulate  steps  to reduce pendency of cases in High Courts and District Courts. In the past, Minister of Law & Justice has taken up the matter with Chief Justices of High Courts and Chief Ministers drawing their attention to cases pending for more than five years and to take up pendency reduction campaign. The Department has developed an online portal for reporting  by  all  High  Courts  on  the  compliance  of  Arrears  Eradication  Scheme guidelines of the Malimath Committee Report.

- (v) Initiatives  to  Fast  Track  Special  Type  of  Cases: The  Fourteenth  Finance Commission endorsed the proposal of the Government to strengthen the judicial system in states which included, inter-alia, establishing Fast Track Courts for cases of heinous crimes;  cases  involving  senior  citizens,  women,  children  etc.,  and  urged  the  State Governments to use the additional fiscal space provided in the form of enhanced tax devolution form 32% to 42% to meet such requirements. As on 31.10.2022, 838 Fast Track Courts are functional for heinous crimes, crimes against women, and children etc. Further, the central government has approved a scheme for setting up 1023 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) across the country for the expeditious disposal of pending cases of  Rape  under  IPC  and  crimes  under  POCSO  Act.  As  on  date,  28  States/UTs  have joined the scheme.
- (vi) In addition, to reduce pendency and unclogging of the courts, the Government has recently amended various laws like the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2018,  the Specific Relief (Amendment) Act, 2018, and the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2018.
- (vii) The government launched the Tele-Law programme in 2017, which provided an effective and reliable e-interface platform connecting the needy and disadvantaged sections seeking legal advice and consultation with panel lawyers via video conferencing,  telephone  and  chat  facilities  available  at  the  Common  Service  Centres (CSCs) situated in Gram Panchayat and through Tele-Law mobile App.

| Category             | Total Advice Enabled   | %      |
|----------------------|------------------------|--------|
| SC                   | 8,62,464               | 31.51% |
| ST                   | 4,90,729               | 17.93% |
| OBC                  | 7,94,986               | 29.04% |
| Women                | 9,19,389               | 33.59% |
| General              | 5,88,932               | 21.52% |
| As of 30th Nov 2022, |                        |        |

(viii) Efforts  have  been  made  to  institutionalize  pro  bono  culture  and  pro  bono lawyering  the  country.  A  technological  framework  has  been  put  in  place  where advocates volunteering to give their time and services for pro bono work can register as Pro  Bono  Advocates  on  Nyaya  Bandhu  (Android  &  iOS  and  Apps).  Nyaya  Bandhu Services also available on UMANG Platform.

Pro Bono Panel of advocates have been initiated in 21 High Courts at the State level. Pro Bono Clubs have been started in 69 select Laws Schools to instill Pro Bono culture in budding lawyers.

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