Its settled

This is an incident taken off the pages of the village court run by the CPIM-ruled panchayat at Cheriyanadu village,which calls itself the first litigation-controlled village panchayat in the country. In the last 10 years,the panchayat court has settled 1,100 complaints and ensured an amicable end to 425 cases pending in various judicial courts.

The village was declared litigation-free in September 2008. The panchayat has set up a court,which has,among others,a retired police officer and a retired college professor,as its members. Besides,the panchayat president,13 other elected members and a representative of the district legal services authority take part in the proceedings of the court.

All civil cases and compoundable offences as per the CrPC will be taken up by the panchayat court. However,civil cases relating to tax collections of various government departments and cases in which the government is a party are not considered, says S H Panchapakesan,a district judge in Kozhikode who played a key role in making Cheriyanadu a litigation-controlled village during his term as a sub-judge at Chengannur in Alappuzha. After the village was declared litigation-free,there have been no civil cases from Cheriyanadu at the Chengannur court, says Panchapakesan.

Family and property disputes and financial frauds form a major chunk of the cases, says panachayat president V K Vasudevan.

The courts origin can be traced to 1998 when the panchayat formed a dispute redressal forum after they recognised that the number of litigations from the region that were pending in courts was mounting. Initially,the panchayat members handled the complaints. Later,the system was fine-tuned and the court set up, says Vasudevan.

Cheriyanadu panchayat has a population of 30,000 and any resident here can register a complaint at the panchayat office. The parties concerned are issued notices,along with copies of the complaint. The court meets on the first and third Saturday of every month. At the sitting,the petition is read out in the presence of the complainant,respondents and members of the panchayat court. Both parties are free to present evidences,if any,to buttress their argument. The court members discuss the issue threadbare. If needed,field visits are undertaken to study cases.

The court has set itself a few rules. For instance,complaints pertaining to family disputes are not heard in the open court. Also,the court does not charge a fee for hearing the complaints.

The system will help improve communal harmony. It inculcates a culture of compromise and tolerance among the people. The panchayat court is not a statutory body. It can work only with the support of the elected members. This model is worth emulating and several national-level legal and rural development bodies have begun studying the Cheriyandu success story, says Panchapakesan.