Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Sanjay Kishan Kaul expressed that the newly adopted system ofAlternative Dispute Resolution Centre (ADR) would bring a new rays of hope for common men engaged in protracted litigation to seek timely justice by saving time and money to settle their issues.After inauguration of the first ADR centre of the state along with Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal at Judicial Complex here today, Justice Mr Kaul addressing a seminar on “Access to Justice-Role of ADR Mechanism” said that mutual dialogue could play abig role in resolving the civil disputes like land, matrimonial and accidental cases in a time bound manner besides benefiting economically to the litigants in an inexpensive justice. He said thata vibrant panel would assist the parties to make them compromise and settle their disputes to satisfaction of both and an agreement reached by the parties on settlement of the issue would be legally valid and binding.Giving details about pendency of cases in the High Court, Justice Kaul told that target has been fixed to decide all 5000 cases pending since ten years till March 31 this. Besides, 54000 more cases have also been identified which are older than 5 years would be pronounced till July31.Stressing upon the necessity for strengthening infrastructure to judiciary, Justice Kaul informed that Punjab and Haryana state governments have always played a leading roles in this regard and the judicial courts never faced any kind of financial crunch. In his address the Deputy Chief Minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal stressed to eliminate the age old laws enacted by the Britishers that have become totally irrelevant and unnecessary in the present times.
He said that due to the growth in population, emergence of technology and expansion in urbanization, nature of cases being transformed day by day besides registering a hefty increase in litigations, which could only be solved through mutual and coordinated systems like ADR centers. Adding further Dy CM said that keeping in view the changing patterns of society, Punjab is the first state in the country to have Administrative Reforms Department that have proposed to eliminate many unnecessary practices being followed in the delivery of services. He asserted that in the next 8 months, state government would provide online redressal of grievances and thereby reducing interaction between common man and public offices. Calling ADR a futuristic mechanism for lowering pendency of court cases, Mr Badal also announced to set up ADR centers in all the districts in the next one and half year. He also assured the government would provide better amenities to lawyers and litigants on the court premises. Fulfilling the demand of Bathinda Bar Association, Mr Badal also announced Rs 2 crore grant to the advocates association.On the occasion Chief Justice Mr Kaul and Deputy CM Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal also laid the foundation stone of Block-C in Judicial Complex Bathinda for industrial and consumer forum. Earlier, Justice Mr Jasbir Singh, Executive Chairman Punjab Legal Services Authority, Justice Mr S.K. Mittal, Executive Chairman Haryana Legal Services Authority and Justice Mr Jitendra Chauhan also spoke on the occasion.Prominent amongst present on the occasion included Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice K.C. Puri, Justice R.K. Garg, Justice M.S. Sullar, Justice Paramjit Singh, Justice S.P. Bangar, Justice Jaspal Singh, District and Sessions Judge Tejwinder Singh, CJM-cum-DLSA Secretary Daljeet Singh Ralhan, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sarup Chand Singla, pisional Commissioner R.K. Sharma, Deputy Commissioner Mohamad Tayyab and Assistant Media Advisor to Deputy CM Mr Harjinder Sidhu.