Step aimed at reducing pendency of cases, fixing accountability
Role & responsibilities of Law Officers, others clearly defined
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 23: In order to reduce pendency of cases in the courts and Tribunals across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and to fix accountability of Law Officers, Government counsels, Advocates on Record and others, the Administrative Council headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has accorded approval to the introduction of litigation reforms.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that the Government and its various agencies are major litigants in the courts and other legal and judicial fora and several steps were initiated in the past to manage the litigation in an efficient and responsible manner to minimize the court cases against the Government so that courts may get more time for other pending cases.
However, the situation has not improved up to the desired level and this is evident from the fact that a total of 65885 cases were pending in the High Court at the end of year 2020. Similarly, 16015 cases were pending in the Central Administrative Tribunal and 185755 in subordinate courts of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The major portion of the litigation against the Government involve service matters, revenue matters, land acquisition cases, criminal cases, arbitration matters and the Public Interest Litigations (PILs). The main causes because of which cases are not being contested properly are delay in filing of objections/replies and statement of facts; filing of appeals/LPAs/SLPs beyond the period of limitation and without any proper explanation for the delay; lack of proper monitoring of litigation at various levels and lack of coordination between departments and Government counsels.
“As there is no perceptible improvement, the Government of J&K UT has felt it imperative to introduce more litigation reforms and a proposal in this regard prepared by the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in consultation with the Chief Secretary was approved by the Administrative Council headed by Lieutenant Government recently”, sources informed.
Now, as soon as an information of institution of case/Arbitration Claim against the Government or its functionaries is received by the department, or it decides to institute a case or prefer an appeal or a claim etc, the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on the recommendation of department concerned will appoint an efficient officer (other than Law Officer) not below the rank of Under Secretary as Officer Incharge (OIC) of the case, who shall be responsible for effective dealing/ monitoring of the case at all levels.
The OIC Litigation will keep close liaison with the department and advocate contesting the case on behalf of the Government and make inquiries into the facts as necessary in the case. Moreover, the OIC will keep close liaison and seek assistance of Law Officer posted in the department wherever required and ensure that relevant record of the case is provided to the counsel or the court without delay.
In order to bring reforms in litigation management, specific roles and responsibilities have been assigned to officers and advocates responsible for handling Government litigation.
The Law Officers including Secretaries, Special Secretaries, Additional Secretaries, Deputy Legal Remembrancers, Senior Law Officers, Public Law Officers and Legal Assistants will be responsible for filing of replies, statements of facts, appeals and all other pleadings before the courts well in time and in case of delay, laxity or default from the Law Officer appropriate action will be taken.
Moreover, the Law Officers will have close liaison with the OIC Litigation appointed by the department and coordinate the conduct of litigation between all the stakeholders. It will also be Law Officer’s responsibility to monitor the progress of litigation particularly to identify the cases in which repeated adjournments have been taken.
Such cases will be brought to the notice of Heads of the Departments and Law Department/Advocate General who will call reasons for adjournments from the concerned counsel and in case of repeated adjournments serious note will be taken for negligence of default and matter will be dealt appropriately which may entail suspension/removal of name from the Government panel.
Similarly, roles and responsibilities of the Government counsels (Additional Advocate General, Deputy Advocate General, Government Advocates and Standing Counsels) have been fixed.
They will not give any assurance before the court without consulting Administrative Department and if in any case it is found that any Government Counsel had made any commitment before the court without consulting Administrative Department or the Law Department the matter will be immediately reported by OIC/Law Officer and the serious action against the Government Counsel should follow which even may entail his disengagement.
While fixing the responsibilities of Directorates of Litigation, the Government said that they will monitor the litigation (both civil and criminal) at divisional level respectively and maintain complete record of the cases pending in subordinate courts and in High Court in a format devised by the Law Department.
Moreover, they will also send a report of cases and a report on performance of all Government counsels to the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on daily basis in a devised format. They will also monitor and submit a report on filing of criminal acquittal appeals/LPAs and in case of any delay on part of any Government Counsel or Law Officer in filing of appeal or LPA the same shall be communicated to the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs along with their recommendation for taking action against the counsel or officer.
The Law Secretary will be responsible for overall manning of litigation pending and for that purpose hold meeting of the OICs, Law Officers and Government Counsels and other officers at least once in two months to get feed-back on the status of Government litigation, share the experience of individuals, pin point the genuine difficulties and evolve ways and means for further improvements.
He will also emphasize to enhance accountability on the part of officials and counsels etc and recommend action in case of gross misconduct or dereliction of duty or impropriety in respect of any class or any individual case of importance and take suitable measures to enforce accountability on the part of all stake holders.
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