Law officers to be deputed to ministries to reduce litigations

In an attempt to reduce government litigations which burden the national exchequer, central ministries will now have law officers who will assess whether or not any case should be pursued and whether any new case should be filed.
The law officers will ensure that courts are approached only as a last resort and cases where chances of winning are lean are not pursued, sources said.
Though there are no official figures available as of now, the Law Ministry believes that government is a litigant in 46 per cent of the cases in higher judiciary, which puts burden on the national exchequer and diverts attention of government from meaningful governance.

The Narendra Modi government, which is reviewing the 2010 National Litigation Policy of the previous UPA dispensation, has proposed to attach law officer to each central department to "take a holistic view of litigation" while filing new cases or defending the pending cases.
The philosophy behind the new policy is to approach courts once the government department is fully satisfied that litigation is the only resort left.
Majority of the cases in which government is a party relate to service disputes and indirect taxes.

The pendency of cases in courts besides being burden upon public exchequer also diverts attention of government from meaningful governance, the draft policy states.

As in 2010, 57,179 cases were pending in the Supreme Court and 42,17,903 were pending in the 24 high courts at the end of 2011.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Personnel, in its latest report. Has quoted Law Secretary P K Malhotra as informing the panel that government is perceived as the largest litigant in various courts and tribunals.
"To reverse this image, the government is proposing a new National Litigation Policy, whereby every court case/order will be closely scrutinised within the department itself with a view to determine as to whether the matter be agitated further or the department should accept the decision of the court and implement it," the committee quoted Malhotra.

Sources in the Ministry said the draft policy will shortly be referred to a Committee of Secretaries who will study the proposal threadbare. Then, an informal group of ministers will take a final call on the policy before it is sent for clearance of the Union Cabinet.