Union Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda today said he would move a Cabinet note putting in place the National Litigation Policy which among other features would also envisage to curb frivolous cases.
"National Litigation Policy 2015 is ready, I am moving a Cabinet note within 15 days and it will come into force in the near future," he said, addressing the Lawyers' Meet 2015 held by the Bar Council of India.
Gowda said inter-ministeral consultations and suggestions of stakeholders with regard to the policy were ready with him.
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Outlining the contours of the 2015 policy, he said, "it envisages to contain frivolous or unwarranted litigation by or against the government, it will give solutions to various issues."
"I hope in the near future the Madras High Court will be called, Chennai High Court and we are working on it," he said.
Stating that there are about three crore cases pending in various courts of the country and referring to the growing demands of justice dispensation, he suggested a three-pronged strategy to tackle high levels of litigation.
Avoiding litigation, resorting to Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism that costs less and quick adjudication were the points, he stressed.
On affordability and cost factor in connection with fighting a court case, he said, "this has to be thought of by the legal fraternity. This issue of affordability can never be tackled by the government as this responsibility primarily depends upon all of us, especially the legal fraternity."
Citing a study by National Law University students, he said three fourths of those who have been given punishments like death sentence belong to socially and economically backward and weaker sections.
"Though our justice dispensation system is not class based, the data hits at our face that in practice due to various factors, especially the cost factor, our system may have become a class-based one," he said.
Stressing that this should be set right, he said "now it is our duty to correct this anomaly failing which it may result in miscarriage of justice."
On speeding up cases, he said the Civil Procedure Code was amended with the aim of speeding up disposals and wondered if that objective was achieved.
"Have we achieved it ? no... Why ? where have we gone wrong ? we need to reflect and come up with solutions," he said.
