Enthused with the success of resolving the long-pending disputes through mediation with the help of members of the civil society comprising retired bureaucrats, educationists, chartered accountants, journalists and businessmen, the Jharkhand State legal Services Authority (JHAlSA) is going to begin training for the second batch of professionals tomorrow.
Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B lokur will kick off the programme at a function at JHAlSA auditorium where the best performers from across the State will also be felicitated.
Brainchild of JHAlSA Executive Chairman Justice D N Patel, the team of experts, the only one of its kind in the country, has achieved a high success rate in the resolution of cases with most of them logging over 65 per cent success rate.
The overall success rate of the State is 52.33 per cent.
Under the law, apartment from retired Judges of the Supreme Court, and the High Courts, retired District & Sessions Judges, legal practitioners, experts or other professionals with at least 15 years standing can also be empanelled as mediators after they are trained by the Mediation and Conciliation Committee (MCPC) of the Supreme Court. The JHAlSA and various district legal services authorities (DlSAs) have also a panel of lawyers trained as mediators.
While there are over 3 lakh criminal cases and 40,000 civil cases pending in courts across the State, around 90,000 of the total pending cases are fit to be transferred to the team concerned.
"The mediation success rate is satisfactory in Jharkhand and one of the reasons behind it is the high number of resolution of cases by the experts committee. Therefore, the JHAlSA took the initiative for the second batch and the MCPC was convinced to give sanction for it,” said Justice Patel.
In fact, the mediation has come a long way in the State. It all started in 2005 in the country. The MCPC, set up the Supreme Court, launched it as a pilot project to see if mediation picked up. Total 10 districts, including two in Jharkhand-Ranchi and Jamshedpur- were selected in the country.
The rigorous and continuous efforts of the MCPC yielded desired results in the country in general and in Jharkhand particular. The success rate of the Ranchi mediation centre is consistently more than 74 per cent and same of Jamshedpur is over 70 per cent.
The passionate support of Justice (Rtd) M Y Eqbal and thereafter Justice D N Patel as JHAlSA Executive Chairman is said to have played a crucial role in setting the Ranchi DlSA as an example for the other states. The successive Principal Judicial Commissioners-Anant Bijay Singh and Navneet Kumar-have also contributed to the success of the mediation in the State Capital.
In fact, according to lawyers, Justice Anant Bijay Singh, who has now been elevated as Judge of the Jharkhand High Court, takes extra pains every day to convince the litigants during court hours to go for mediation and end the dispute and his efforts are said to have yielded results setting example for others with more and more lawyers also opting for the mediation.