He lamented that court process often turns out to be punishment for litigants who start to think that they should ‘keep away from courts’.
People are often fed up with lengthy court proceedings that they resort to settlement even if such settlement is not very beneficial to them, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said on Saturday.
He lamented that court process often turns out to be punishment for litigants who start to think that they should ‘keep away from courts’.
“Log itna trast ho jate hain court ke mamlon se wo koi bhi settlement chahte hain. Bas court se dur kara dijiye (People are often fed up with court proceedings that they resort to whatever settlement they can. They think ‘just keep us away from courts’),” he said.
The process is punishment and this is a concern for us judges, he conceded.
However, since settlement of disputes via mediation and Lok Adalat involve lot of systemic inequalities, judges sitting as part of Lok Adalat often do not agree to settle matters for small amounts even if the parties are willing.
“Very often we say we will not allow settlement as it reflects pre-existing inequalities in the society. For example in a case, when Justice Vikram Nath heard an offer of ₹1 lakh as settlement charge, he denied. He said a better outcome should be there and thus ₹6 lakh with consent was ordered,” the CJI stated.
The CJI was speaking at the commemoration of the week-long Lok Adalat held in the Supreme Court of India from July 29 to August 2 which witnessed several benches of the top court disposing of over 1,000 cases.
In his address, the CJI also highlighted another issue faced by Supreme Court judges – the invisibility of litigants before it.
“We judges of Supreme Court are used to sit on elevated dias and (only) lawyers (are) before us. We hardly know the clients like judges know in High Court or District Court. The people for whom we render justice in the Supreme Court is invisible to us and that we feel is a drawback of the work of Supreme Court. but as experienced SC judges we try to remember the face of the cause that comes to us. In that we are not distinct from the members who are before us and we are bound together as a human chain,” the CJI said.
The Lok Adalat proceedings in the Supreme Court also saw lawyers and judges on the bench together for the first time to hear matters.
The CJI stated that the panel of Lok Adalat comprised of two judges and one senior member from the Supreme Court Bar Association and one from the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association.
“This was to give advocates ownership over the institution and that it is just not for the judges. Lawyers always knew about procedural issues and we learnt a lot from them. They told us how a settlement case can be made foolproof. Lawyers also learnt from us about how much care (we take) when dealing with such issues,” CJI Chandrachud stated.