The country is now on the path of adopting a new litigation policy. Litigation means litigation or court case. The first file that Modi Government 3.0’s Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal signed within 10 minutes of taking charge on June 11 was that of the National Litigation Policy. Meghwal said, “This is a very important document. Its demand was being raised for a long time. Implementation of the policy will be convenient for all parties.” Implementation of the litigation policy will help in reducing the number of cases.

According to the latest data of National Judicial Data Grid, more than 4.5 crore cases are pending in the courts of the country. Half of these are such in which the government or some government department is a party. There are thousands of cases on railway land alone. Similarly, public sector undertakings (PSUs), banks, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC), Revenue Department etc. are also parties in many cases.

What will change with the National Litigation Policy

The government does not even have any data on how many cases it is a party to. Cases of government departments also go on year after year. When the lower courts give a decision, the departments go for appeal. But there is no set criterion for which type of cases should be appealed and which should not. To overcome this shortcoming, the Law Ministry has prepared a new litigation policy.

CBDT and CBIC have made a policy of appealing on the decisions of the tribunal on the basis of amount. But in the absence of a detailed policy, lakhs of taxation cases are pending in various courts. Meghwal said, “Just like the education policy improves the lives of people, in the same way the National Litigation Policy will provide convenience to the parties and the common people. Its demand was being raised for the last several years.”

The demand was coming from both the judiciary and government departments. Actually, civil cases alone cost a lot of time and money of a person or an organization. Mental stress is another matter. Sometimes even very minor disputes go on for years. Former Chief Justice NV Raman had also said during a case that in about 50 percent of the pending cases, one of the parties is the government or a government department.

However, the document of National Litigation Policy has received the green signal from the Law Ministry along with the signature of the Law Minister. Now this document will go to the Cabinet. Where it will be discussed and then the government will take a decision on it.