The Union Government is mooting to cut down the litigation period and if the envisaged national litigation policy comes into existence in February country would be able to fast track cases in the Court which already are over burdened by the backlog. All the state governments have already notified state litigation policies to reduce government litigation, but the Law Ministry is still engaged in inter-ministerial discussion. Bringing uniformity in Court procedures in different states and a discussion on the much-awaited reforms in Bar Councils are some of the other issues that may be taken up for discussion. The Advisory Council meeting is chaired by the Law Minister and attended by Minister of State for Home and the Attorney General among others. During the eighth Advisory Council meeting held in July last year, the government had promised to extend infrastructure of various judicial academies for professional training of advocates. The state judicial academies already provide necessary assistance for conducting training programmes for other stakeholders in the justice delivery system, such as public prosecutors and police officers. To bring down pendency of cases in Courts, both the Centre and states have decided to withdraw “frivolous and ineffective cases”. The Law Ministry has drawn a 10-point litigation policy, and asked states to review all pending litigations. States and Central Government departments have been asked to set up empowered panels and suggest withdrawal of frivolous cases, particularly those of petty offences and traffic Challans. To discourage future litigations, the government has decided to compulsorily introduce arbitration and mediation clauses in work contracts of its staff and public sector employees. The Law Ministry had also written to Chief Justices of High Courts to advise Judges to invoke Section 258 of the CrPC, which relates to the power to stop proceedings and remove deadwood from judicial system where it is necessary. All these guidelines are part of a national litigation policy drafted by the Law Ministry in consultation with the states and High Courts. Some states have already set up empowered committees to identify cases which have become ineffective and infructuous with passage of time.
