Journalism of Courage
Even as the Pune district and sessions court has just one judge trained as a mediator for the last five years,three more judges and two lawyers from the court have now been trained in counselling and conciliation with the aim of reducing pendency. Uma Ramanathan and Satya Rao of the Tamil Nadu Mediation and Conciliation Centre undertook the training sessions at the Pune district court. Other than lawyers and judges from Pune,13 judges from other parts of the state participated.
According to member secretary of the Pune District Legal Services Authority (PDLSA),R K Malabade,only assistant sessions judge R H Mohammad,who was also member secretary of PDLSA last year,is a trained counselor in Pune court. After competing the 40-hour training as per directions of the Bombay High Court,three others judges,R K Malabade,civil judge (senior division) A A Khan and judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) Umeshchandra More were trained in mediation. Also,advocates Milind Pawar,who is former president of the Pune Bar Association and Dada Godse were trained as counselors.
According to Pawar,The training mainly included ways and means to counsel litigants in settling cases mutually. The idea is to reduce pendency by convincing both parties to settle matters mutually.
According to the Bombay High Court,there are 4.27 lakh pending cases in the state and Pune district has the highest pendency after Mumbai. According to the HC report,till December 2010,4,27,961 cases were pending of which 3.67 lakh were criminal cases and 60,121 civil suits. A large number of civil court matters pertain to cheque bounce cases and those that fall under the Negotiable Instruments Act,1881,and there is an attempt to dispose them of through alternative dispute redressal methods,including mediation.
What is mediation?
Unlike Lok Adalats,the method of dealing with cases by a mediator is informal,focusing on the parties interests rather than following rules of procedure and evidence. Once a case is handed over to the mediator with consent from both parties,it can go on for days as the mediator has to understand the intricacies of the case and convince the disputing parties for a compromise. Once the parties reach a settlement,the terms are written,signed and submitted to the court to pass a decree. If not,the case will be returned to the referring judge for adjudication. The order passed through the mediation centre cannot be challenged in any other court since it has been arrived at by mutual consent of the parties.
