The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : SC to take up programme to popularise mediation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 30, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

SC to take up programme to popularise mediation

Staff Reporter

BMC has overtaken centres in other States in all aspects: Cyriac Joseph

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

In conversation: (From left) S. Vishwanathan, Chairman of CII, Karnataka Chapter; Gnanasham Das, Managing Director of NASDAQ, Bangalore; Cyriac Joseph, judge of the Supreme Court, and Bannurmath, judge of the High Court of Karnataka, at a seminar in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: Supreme Court judge Cyriac Joseph said on Saturday that the Supreme Court would soon take up a national programme to popularise mediation in all States.

He was speaking at a seminar on “Scope of mediation in corporate disputes” organised on the High Court premises here by the Bangalore Mediation Centre (BMC).

He said the Arrears Committee of the Supreme Court headed by judge S.P. Sinha and the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) chaired by judge Arijit Pasayat had decided to take up the programme covering all high courts and district courts.

He said BMC was not the first of its kind in the country. Mediation centres had been opened in Delhi, Chennai and other places.

But Bangalore centre had overtaken all of them in the field of infrastructure and the number of cases successfully mediated.

He said other States had sought the help of BMC in taking up mediation programmes and even the Supreme Court would be seeking the services of mediators from Bangalore. BMC president and senior High Court judge S.R. Bannurmath said till January 1, 2007, the centre mediated 6,775 cases of which 4,825 cases were settled.

D.L. Jagadeesh, president of the Advocates’ Association, Bangalore, said that the Bar always cooperated with the Bench when it had taken up new initiatives to tackle pendency of cases.

Gnanasham Das, Managing Director of NASDAQ, Bangalore, said there were more than 40 million cases pending in Indian courts.

The pendency of cases in Allahabdad High Court alone was 1.2 million.

President of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII-Karnataka) S. Vishwanathan said mediators should be neutral if the case they were mediating had to be resolved amicably.

He wanted the BMC officials to address CII members on mediation. BMC mediator and advocate Shoba Patil said the centre had completed two years of its successful existence and it was ready to face new challenges.

High Court judges, BMC officials, mediators and advocates were present.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section