Naidu urges judiciary to minimise litigation

New Delhi: Emphasising the importance of globalisation and the need to make Andhra Pradesh a business-friendly state, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu called upon the judiciary to minimise litigation and ensure the speedy disposal of cases related to the state, corporate and business sector. He said, “I would like to add that the increasing trend of avoidable litigation is leading to heavy burden on the judiciary and consequently slowing down the pace of the economic development. The economic prosperity can reach the lowest levels of the society in the globalised economic environment, only if the three organs of the State i.e. executive, legislature and the judiciary, work in perfect harmony with one another by enriching themselves with each other’s experiences.”

He expressed his dismay over legal complications arising in the execution of several projects that were resulting in cost overruns leading to driving away of foreign investors from the Indian markets. Chandrababu Naidu was participating at the conference of the Chief Ministers of the states and Chief Justices of the High Courts inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Chief Justice of India H L Dattu, Union Law Minister Sadanand Gowda, Chief Justice of AP High Court Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta among others were participating in the conference.

Though the executive and the legislature are supreme, Naidu pointed out to its role to guide them when it senses they were erring. He said, “The judiciary must guide the other organs of the state to attain this objective duly balancing the growth prospects of the country.” “Laws must be amended to discourage frivolous litigation, which hinders economic growth. The state as the biggest litigant will take a lead in discouraging frivolous litigation and make all the endeavours on its part to settle the disputes that may arise amicably by taking recourse to the alternative dispute resolution mechanism,” he said. He also mentioned about Vision-2029 which aims to make AP a developed state and assured to secure ‘Justice for all by 2020’.

By assuring the conference that his government will operationalise the recommendations of this conference, Naidu made suggestions for CMs-CJs conference for Tuesday which include revitalisation of traditional system of community-based conflict resolution and reconciliation mechanism; a master plan for providing litigant-friendly court and residential buildings to all subordinate courts existing, judicial reforms for the establishment of all India judicial service; placing the affidavits and counter-affidavits and the disputed property details in the public domain, supported the establishment of National Court Management System (NCMS) and the implementation of Phase II of e-Courts Project and establishment of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill.