Pre-litigation mediation would reduce pendency of cases: CJI Sharad Arvind Bobde
Nov 27, 2020
New Delhi [India], November 27 : Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde, while speaking on the celebration of Constitution Day on Thursday, said that to expeditiously reduce pendency of cases, litigants should resort to pre-litigation mediation.
"It is high time people (litigants) resort to pre-litigation mediation which has the force of decree. It is something which I believe will work and is probably the only thing which can contain pendency especially the huge pendency which will arise post-Covid," CJI Bobde said.
Each and every litigation did not require arguments at all to come to a logical conclusion for parties, CJI Bobde said.
He also said that it is not just that during this pandemic, even otherwise, the judiciary has worked through conditions that are truly adverse. But it is the real commitment of the judiciary which worked constantly to improve the access to justice which has remained constant. he added.
Lauding the role of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), its members and other functionaries, CJI Bobde, said that it is really been great that during pandemic times, the role of the SCBA, in helping in many areas including technical assistance and financial help to needy lawyers.
At the same time, he said that it is very disheartening and unfortunate to see that due to Covid and as there are no physical hearings, so many lawyers lose their livelihood and to earn it they resort to other kinds of earning their money. "It is sad and unfortunate," CJI Bobde said.
Due to Covid-19, we all adhere to our technology for conducting hearings through video conferencing, which we all are very much aware and accustomed to, he said.
"Our system heavily depends upon books and other modes of things" to represent our cases, but due to the technology, this brings a lot of change in all, CJI Bobde said on the Constitution Day celebration today.
