IMPHAL, June 8: The approved draft State Litigation policy, 2011 has its significant in strengthening the Judiciary towards reducing pendency and delays in delivering the justice.
According to an official source, state government had recently approved the draft State Litigation Policy 20011, after consideing the proposal from the Centre, in pursuant to a resolution presented by the Union Minister of Law and Justice in the National Consultation for strengthening the judiciary towards reducing pendency and delays, which was held on October 24 and 25, 2009, the government of India has launched the National Litigation policy, on June 23 last year with a view to ensure conduct of responsible litigation by the Central government and the central government has directed all the states to take appropriate steps to frame a state litigation policy to deal with state litigation.
It is also mentioned that prior to the adoption of the state litigation policy as per the directive from the centre, the Registrar General, Guwahati High Court, Guwahati has also requested the law secretary of the state government for taking steps for framing and notifying the state Litigation Policy during December last year.
The source further mentioned that accordingly a draft State Litigation Policy was prepared and the draft state policy is based on the National Litigation Policy in recorgnistion that state government and its various agencies as the pre-dominant litigants in courts and Tribunals in the state. It’s aim is to transform government into an efficient and responsible litigant. This policy is also based on the rights of citizens, to respect fundamental rights and those in charge of the conduct of government litigation should never forget this basic principle.
Later, with completion of all official formalities, the draft, Manipur Litigation Policy, 2011, has placed before the recent state cabinet meeting and the said draft policy was approved to be adopted in the state.
On the other hand, the draft Manipur State Litigation Policy, 2011 elaborated that, the policy is based on the National Litigation policy in recognition that state government and its various agencies are the predominant litigants in courts and tribunals in the state. Its aim is to transformed the state government into an efficient and responsible litigant. This policy is also based on the recognition that it is the responsibility of the government to protect the rights of citizens, to respect fundamental rights and those in charge of the conduct of the government litigation should never forget this basic principle.
The policy further elaborated that, the case related to the Public Interest Litigations must be approached in a balanced manner. On the one hand, PILs should not be taken as matters of convenience to let the courts do what government finds inconvenient. It is recognized that the increase in PILs stems from a perception that there is governmental inaction. This perception must be changed. It much be recognized that several PILS are filed for collateral reasons including publicity and at the instance of third parties. Such litigation must be exposed as being not bonifide.
The report also mentioned that, PILs challenging public contracts must be seriously defended. If interim orders are passed stopping such projects then appropriate conditions must be insisted upon for the petitioners to pay compensation if the PIL is ultimately rejected.
Finally the approved draft report of the State Litigation Policy mentioned that all pending cases involving government will be reviewed. This due Diligence process shall involve drawing upon statistics of all pending matters which shall be provided for by the all government departments (including Public Sector Undertakins ,PSUs). The office of the attorney general and the Solicitor General shall be responsible for reviewing all pending cases and filtering frivolous and vexatious matters from the meritorious ones.
It is also mentioned that, cases will be grouped and categorized. The practice of grouping should be introduced whereby cases be assigned a particular number of identity accordingly to the subject and statute involved. In fact, further, sub-grouping will also be attempted. To facilitate this process, standard forms must be devised which lawyers have to fill up at the time of filling of cases. Panels will be set up up to implement categorization, review such cases to identify cases which can be widthrawn. These includes cases which are covered by decisions of courts and cases which are found without merit withdrawn. This must be done in a time bound fashion, the draft report of the State Litigation Policy added.
