SC mediation panel writes to states, urges ‘serious attempts’ to resolve cases involving govts

In a letter, the Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee has urged chief secretaries to form teams of senior officers to settle cases identified for mediation by 15 February, ThePrint has learnt.

Supreme Court of India | Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: The Supreme Court’s Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC) has written to the chief secretaries of all states, urging them to make “serious attempts” to resolve cases in which their respective governments are parties, as part of its bid to involve relevant stakeholders in the proposed second all-India “Mediation for the Nation” drive.

ThePrint has learnt that the letter, written by the MCPC secretary on behalf of its chairman, Justice Vikram Nath, urges chief secretaries to constitute a team of senior officers who can take appropriate steps to settle disputes that would be referred for mediation once the identification of cases concludes on 15 February.

Sources told ThePrint that the panel suggested being established for taking such measures would include the Principal Secretary of the Home Department, Labour Department and the Department looking after Land Acquisition Cases.

Sources told ThePrint that the proposed panel would include the Principal Secretary for Home, and Labour department, and the department in charge of land acquisition cases.

“The three broad categories where the state can play a pivotal role to amicably settle long-pending disputes are criminal compoundable cases, labour ones where government departments are embroiled in litigation and land acquisition cases wherein government owes money to landowners in lieu of acquiring their property for public purposes,” explained sources mentioned above.

According to the source, criminal compoundable cases would be those where a state is the complainant and would not include criminal matters between two private parties. Compoundable cases are where both parties compromise to end criminal litigation.

Cases filed under Weights & Measures Act, traffic challans, matters registered under Labor Act with penal consequences, petty nature cases under The Forest Act, civic actions taken by the police involving punishment and appropriate cases under the Excise Act would fall within the category of “criminal compoundable cases” where a state government is the primary complaint.

“In all such cases, punishment is predominantly fine. For example, an employer is found not to have deposited provident funds of 10 of his employees, then, if found guilty, they can be directed to pay a fine. We have come across many instances where progress in such cases is very slow, clogging the system. Hence, we have requested the Chief Secretaries to make an earnest effort to settle these matters that are unnecessarily burdening the system,” another source told ThePrint.

So far, the MCPC has received data of 2.3 crore cases that have an element of settlement. Among those cases, over 50 lakh cases are in the criminal compoundable category, over 27 lakh are land acquisition matters and more than 1.66 lakh cases are under the Labor Act.

As per the guidelines issued to all high courts, services of experienced mediators, law teachers, legal services advocates and judicial staff will be taken to scrutinize the 2.3 crore cases and segregate those that can be potentially settled through mediation. Only these cases would then be listed during the “Mediation for Nation” drive.

The comprehensive guidelines also give high courts the discretion to appoint experts under rule 3(b) of the Mediation Rules, 2015 that allows hiring of non-lawyers to be mediators in court-referred mediations.

These experts could be counsellors for matrimonial dispute, retired bank officials for cheque bounce cases, insurance officers for motor accident cases, retired government officers for land acquisition matters and lawyers, who may not be trained mediators, for criminal compoundable cases.

Further, the HCs have been told to ask the district administration to provide for space, in case the court complexes fall short, during the drive.

Mediation for Nation drive is MCPC’s second attempt to promote mediation as an effective alternative redressal mechanism to resolve disputes. The first round was conducted last year, when present Chief Justice of India Suryakant headed the committee. Of the 5 lakh cases that were referred, around one lakh were settled, with matrimonial litigation forming the majority of the settlements recorded.

(Edited by Shashank Kishan)