With the State government being party to lakhs of cases of litigation in the High Court and subordinate courts in the State, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has unveiled the Karnataka State Dispute Resolution Policy–2021 for speedy disposal of cases, including the adoption of alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
This policy is applicable to all disputes involving government departments. The disputes include those involving questions of public law, commercial or contractual matters, service law matters, and criminal cases.
The policy applicable to all disputes between government departments, whether they were pending before any court or tribunal, arbitrations, lok adalats, and also the ones that involve the State as quasi-judicial authorities.
The 55-page dispute resolution policy envisages that each department should appoint a nodal officer to coordinate with the law officers and assist the heads of the departments on legal matters. The nodal officer should be an advocate with legal practice experience of at least five years.
However, the policy does not deal with the independent wings of governance such as the Judiciary or the Police Department (investigation).
ADRs are non-judicial and out-of-court methods of resolving disputes, and the policy has recommended the establishment of a dispute resolution board in each department. It envisages the constitution of an empowered committee headed by the Chief Secretary to monitor the implementation of the policy and evaluate the performance of stakeholders internally.
Justice S.R. Bannurmath, chairperson of Karnataka State Law Commission, said more than three lakh cases were pending in the High Court of Karnataka and in lower courts wherein the government was a party to the dispute. The pendency of cases was high, and on some occasions writ petitions were filed to deliberately disturb the functioning of government departments, he said.
The Chief Minister also released a coffee table book on 24 Advocate Generals who served the State in the past 75 years.
