CJ for strengthening alternate dispute resolution mechanism
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 5: Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul today delivered key note address on the first day of the 3-day State-level intensive Mediation Workshop organized by the Mediation and Conciliation Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and supported by Jammu and Kashmir Government at SKICC here.
Underlining the importance of mediation system, Justice Kaul urged upon the lawyers and the judges to prefer mediation over litigation to deliver justice. He said mediation is the best way to tackle pending cases.
Justice Kaul said the adversarial system could only decide who wins or loses a case, whereas mediation could get to the bottom of the dispute, resolve its genesis and bring about a holistic change of mind among the warring groups.
He recalled how a successful mediation between a leading brand of Denim clothing and a local business establishment accused of infringing the trademark had led to the latter becoming a supplier for the international brand. Judges must be trained to identify cases that could be settled through mediation, he said.
The Supreme Court Judge said the process of mediation was much superior to adjudicatory process and it required more professionalization. He said the training workshop will help the lawyers and the judges to imbibe the skills to be a good mediator. He said in the dispute, mediation prompts the parties to come up with a solution unlike in litigation where the solution is imposed on them
Stressing on the need to encourage mediation at local level, he said the mediation process at the district level was very elementary stage and urged the judges to actively participate in the process of encouraging mediation and ensure that it permeates every nook and corner.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Justice of J&K High Court, Justice Gita Mittal stressed the need for strengthening and encouraging the alternate dispute resolution through arbitration and mediation.
“Mediation has become a real game changer, not in the context of addressing judicial disposals but as an alternative dispute redressal mechanism and an essential part of every person’s life. Mediation plays critical role in delivering timely justice to the people and has become an integral part of daily functioning and critical part of dispute resolution in very important areas, including commercial disputes or family disputes”, said Justice Mittal.
She further said that mediation as an alternative justice delivery system was introduced in the State only 10 years ago and more tangible efforts are needed to popularize it among the masses so that people make its optimum use. Organizing such an extensive training workshop is also aimed at to institutionalize the system of mediation in the State and creating a permanent mechanism to improve and promote timely justice to the people, she said.
Justice Gita Mittal said the lawyers were having difficulties while responding to the path of mediation because rules do not postulate payments for lawyers. She said there are several areas where rules need to be relooked not only because of nature of litigation which has come to courts, but also the nature of problems which the State is facing.
She lauded the efforts of Mediation Centre for bringing the experts from across the globe to train the lawyers and judges in the State in mediation skills. She said the occasion will help participants to hone their skill in mediation, especially in working with sprit of harmony.
Justice Tashi Rabstan, Chairman Mediation and Conciliation Committee, High Court of Jammu and Kashmir in his address said that after the introduction of Mediation as an alternative system of justice in 2009, the same has been institutionalized as per the guidelines laid down by the Mediation Conciliation Project Committee of Supreme Court of India.
Giving status of the functioning of the Mediation Centres in the State, Justice Rabstan said that till date, eight Mediation Centres have been made functional across the State, while land for six districts is yet to be identified. He said work on eight Mediation Centres in eight other districts of the State is in progress. He said establishing mediation as an alternative system of justice is aiming at ensuring excess to justice for all by providing opportunity to litigants to settle their disputes through mediation and conciliation. “This training workshop will give us the best human resource to make the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centres fully functional in the state.
Justice Alok Aradhe, Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, Justice DS Thakur, Justice Sanjeev Kumar, Justice MK Hanjura, Justice Sindhu Sharma, Justice Rashid Ali Dar, Advocate General, DC Raina, Registrar General, J&K High Court, Sanjay Dhar, Registrar Vigilance, Puneet Gupta, Principal Secretary to Chief Justice, Jawad Ahmad, Former Chief Justice BA Khan, Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Justice (retd) Bashir Ahmad Kirmani, Justice (Retd) Sunil Hali, Law Secretary, Abdul Majeed Bhat judicial officers, President JK Bar Association Jammu, BS Salathia, advocates, senior officers of Law Department, law students from across the State were also present on the occasion.
Abdul Rashid Malik, Director JK State Judicial Academy conducted the proceedings of the inaugural session and introduced the subject to the audience.
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