‘Make arbitration must for commercial disputes to reduce pendency in courts’

Source: Times of India dated 20.12.2018

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:
A finance ministry study has found that it took an average 20 years for a property dispute to be resolved, and it would take 324 years just to clear the backlog of cases (2.90 crore) at the current rate of disposal. Referring to the above facts, Niti Aayog in its strategy document for New India @75 has proposed setting up an All-India Judicial Service for recruitment of judges by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and creating a cadre-based service in the subordinate judiciary to address huge pendency and inefficiency in judicial administration.

The panel, in its policy document, has proposed to make it necessary to go through mandatory arbitration and mediation before approaching courts. “A mechanism may be considered whereby litigants in a commercial dispute must first be made to exhaust the remedy of pre-institution mediation and settlement. However, it should be ensured that such cases do not create one more stratum in litigation,” the document said.

Apart from an all-India exam to recruit judges, the panel also proposed a performance index for judges and a separate state-wise index for ease of getting justice, besides introducing an administrative cadre in the judicial system. “To maintain judicial independence, the cadre should report to the chief justice in each HC,” it added. It suggested implementing court process automation for electronic court and case management, including management of schedules and migration of all courts to a unified national court application software.

On ease of doing business, it sought a “single window” system in all states to provide a single point of contact between investor and government and facilitate all licences and approvals. It also said for efficient approval process, a system of accountability for major stakeholders like inspection bodies, testing labs etc should be developed. To ease environmental clearances, it suggested using GIS-based maps to create preapproved land banks for manufacturing facilities. In such land banks, standards could be laid down relating to environmental requirements, building bylaws and safety norms.