As county's High Courts have estimated to have piled up around three lakh cases and lower courts having two to three crore pending cases, members of a parliamentary panel on
Monday sought to know from top law Ministry officials as to why alternate methods are not being used to resolve legal disputes , particularly those involving Government as a litigant .
Members also asked about the number of cases in which the government is the litigant and sought detailed response from the Department of Legal Affairs in the form of a questionnaire to be sent to the department. Government is reportedly the largest litigant in the courts.
Law Secretary (Department of Legal Affairs) Alok Shrivastava made presentations on functioning of the department and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms in a meeting on Monday before the Parliament's standing committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.
The 30-member parliamentary standing committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, which has MPs from across the party lines is headed by BJP's Rajya Sabha member Bhupender Yadav. Sources quoted a member asking the secretary Legal Affairs that if it is true that the Government is the major litigant, then why not alternate methods of resolving disputes involving the Government to dent huge pendency of case were being taken.
Members expressed concern over the weak enforcement of contracts in the country scaring away the foreign investors and also said huge government funds are locked up in disputes on account of delay in settling the appeals in the apex tribunal.
In his response, Secretary (Legal Affairs) explained that the measures are being taken by the Government in recent times to fill up large number of vacancies in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunals for early disposal of cases.