Supreme Court judge Justice Uday Umesh Lalith, also the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority, stressed upon the benefits of ADR vis-à-vis the normal court apparatus, which is being burdened with arrears to dispose of matters within time.
While delivering the Keynote Address in the Inaugural Session of 2nd Justice J.S. Verma Memorial ADR & Client Counselling Competition, 2022 organised at NDMC Convention Centre, New Delhi, Justice Lalit explained the historical developments of mediation in Ramayana and Mahabharata and how non-acceptance of offer of mediation resulted in tremendous war.
Justice Lalit highlighted the importance of mediation by saying that mediation will be a proper channel where both the parties will settle the dispute amicably and will walk away with a smile on their face which in turn will give them a feeling of achievement. Justice Lalit further stated that statutory mediation has been handed over to Legal Services institutions.
Justice Lalit said that due to successful counselling by our workforce resulted in tremendous success in disposing of more than two crore cases in the last four National Lok Adalats of which majority were at pre-litigation stage so that cases may not see the corridors of the courts. The judge emphasized that Legal Aid to Poor does not mean poor legal aid, legal aid means qualitative assistance has to come from eminent and expert lawyers. Then he told that Law students can be a good source available for qualitative assistance to poor.
Justice Lalit urged law colleges across the nation to adopt at least three taluks around them and send their law students to reach these places as Para Legal Volunteers and train and sensitize local people about their entitlements. This pool of talented student can be banked on to draft services in legal services clinics.
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The speech of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit is given below:
“Three reasons Hon’ble Justice U.U. Lalit was here. The first reason is that the programme was associated with Justice J.S. Verma. The juniors learnt their basics from giants like Justice Verma. His concern for the environmental issue was dear to Justice Lalit as well because in a Forest Case in 1996, Justice Verma appointed Senior Advocate Harish Salve and Justice Lalit as amicus curiae and Justice Lalit continued to serve as the amicus curiae in that case till his elevation to the Supreme Court in 2014. The first hearing in this case almost went on for 3 weeks in which the definition of the forest was revised in an order dated 12/12/1996. Before that, Justice Verma and Justice Kirpal (who formed the Bench) had requested the presence of all Chief Conservators of Forest, so, the hearing was conducted after getting all inputs from every possible source. Initially, every forest officer was brought into this atmosphere that forests are for exploitation. Therefore, the theory of exploitation prevalent at that time was that we must have a 40-year programme dividing forest into 40 compartments and start felling trees in the first compartment, and then plant trees there, and then move on to the next compartment in the next year. Additionally, the forest cover at that time was just about 17% as against the declared policy of 33%. So, after the 3 week-long hearing and the order passed by Justice Verma, the entire ethos in the country and especially in the Forest Department of various States has seen a complete scene change. Today everybody is on the conservation method. And the last input Justice Lalit received while appearing for the Forest Case was that the forest cover increased from 17% to 21%. Therefore, that is the contribution of single-minded pursuit of some of the Judges in the Supreme Court and the foundation was laid by Justice Verma. Moreover, Justice Lalit’s wife runs a school and the school is just two plots away from where Justice Verma used to stay. So, on the First Annual Day, Justice Verma was requested to be the Chief Guest. When Justice Verma had attended the event, it showed a beautiful facet of his life where he bent down to give prizes to every one of the kids who were around 2-3 years old. That image always stayed in Justice Lalit’s mind.
The second reason is that Justice Lalit is the Chairperson of NALSA, and NALSA is associated with this programme. Now, the subject of ADR is the principal topic of all these competitions held here. What is ultimately ADR? A normal court apparatus is so burdened with such tremendous workload that we are not able to dispose of matters within time. For every healthy society, you need a mechanism where disputes amongst the citizens are resolved as early as possible. Any pending dispute is like a wound that has not been healed, and it will keep emitting that pain and letting the blood go from that individual. Similarly, all pending matters have that tendency. In order to lessen the burden on the existing apparatus, we have devised various modes and we call them ADR, short for Alternate Dispute Resolution. Right from Ramayana and Mahabharata, Angad Shishtai was nothing but Mediation. Shri Krishna Shishtai in Mahabharata where Lord Krishna goes to Duryodhan and says that Pandavas would be happy with even 5 villages, was nothing but an offer made in Mediation. It is true that those offers were not accepted and what resulted thereafter was tremendous wars. That’s the logic of Mediation. Try to settle the disputes amicably so that both parties walk away with a smile on their face and feel that I have achieved something out of this. We adopt the same technique in our Lok Adalats. There are certain potential disputes, for instance, Negotiable Instruments Act cases u/s 138 where somebody may have issued a cheque and the cheque is bounced and the offence is complete. So, if you go through the regular process of court then he thinks sizeable amount of time may get lost. But if you settle the matter early, may be as against the cheque amount somebody may settle for 90% of that sum. And it is that logic that perhaps impels people to accept the terms of settlement which are brought about through ADR. This is just one example, but there are various types of claims. There are today Statutory Mediations that are contemplated under the Commercial Courts Act, and that is one of the charters of Lok Adalat and one of the charters of NALSA under the amended provisions of the Legal Services Act. We are utilising this idea, and it has shown a great amount of result. The burden on the regular legal system, has arrears amounting to around Four and a Half Crore cases all over the country. In the last 4 Lok Adalats, we have been able to dispose of more than Two Crore cases, out of which, about 75 Lakh are court cases which were pending in court, and rest of the cases were at pre-litigation stage. Since Justice Lalit took over as Chairperson of NALSA, the first Lok Adalat in July saw disposal of 29 Lakh cases, September saw disposal of 42 Lakh cases, December saw disposal of 54 Lakh cases, and presently in March, 79 Lakh cases. So, that’s the possibility which is always there, but the only thing is we must know how to tap that possibility.
The third reason now. Justice Lalit is always advocating that legal aid must be good quality legal aid. Legal aid to the poor does not mean poor legal aid. Qualitative assistance has to come, and the Judges can simply create an atmosphere and have a network where lawyers would be engaged and those lawyers would appear for those needy persons who require legal aid. Ultimately, qualitative assistance has to come from lawyers. Judges may tap the sources and garner the talent and then put them in charge of legal affairs but ultimately legal aid has to come from lawyers. So, the people must have the confidence that even if they go through this channel of Legal Aid or if they go through the other channel of Private Counsel, then the people must get the same kind of assistance through this legal aid channel. And that can come only if we catch them young. And that’s the reason Justice Lalit was present at the event. Law students are the best source available today. For instance, in Medical Courses, after completing a medical college, the students are expected to do some internships. They give it back to the society. Similarly, law students should give something back to the society, and that avenue could be legal aid. Justice Lalit has always been advocating that every law college must adopt three Talukas around it, and keep sending its 2nd and 3rd year law students as a regular curriculum so that those law students reach the villages, act as paralegal volunteers, and try to inculcate in the villagers that what is their right and how best that right can be enforced and achieved. So once the students are drafted in this kind of pursuit, then that talent will be the best available talent when they become lawyers, and that pool of talent can be relied on to draft the services in Legal Services Clinic. And that is the third reason Justice Lalit was there, to utilise the forum to adopt this as an idea and implement it to see tremendous results. Once that batch goes out, let it be a regular affair every year and those persons will have had a tremendous upbringing, they will have the groundwork in Legal Services Authorities matters, they will have a first-hand experience, and they will be the surest talent to tap.”