Moily warns against ‘motivated’ PILs

Taking a cue from what happened in the Bhopal disaster case,in which the verdict came after 25 years,the government under the National Legal Mission came out with a detailed plan to reduce the average pendency of cases from 15 years to three years.

Significantly,the government has decided to deal with adjournments sought by government lawyers “very seriously”,as it conceded that government counsels resort to frequent adjournments,thereby delaying the cases.

Moily said the nodal officers,who shall be appointed under the National Legal Mission to coordinate the conduct of the litigation,will also be responsible to monitor the progress of each litigation,particularly with regard to identifying cases in which repeated adjournments are taken.

Besides,the ministry will also suspend or remove advocates from the government panels if they are found at fault in seeking repeated adjournments.

The Law Ministry,under the litigation policy,has also decided to view those cases,in which costs are awarded against the government on account of repeated adjournments,“very seriously”. In all such cases,according to the policy,the head of the department must give a report to the empowered committee reasons as to why costs was awarded.

Stringent action will be taken against officers who were found responsible for the default,which entailed imposition of costs.

The A-G will head the empowered committee at the national level while other members,not more than six,will be nominated by the Law Ministry. Along side,there will be four regional empowered committees,to be chaired by an Additional Solicitor General nominated by the ministry.

The policy would be implemented from the beginning of next month.