Date:20/11/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/11/20/stories/2002112003991300.htm

National

SC forms panel on CPC amendments

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI Nov. 19. The Supreme Court has appointed the Chairman of the Law Commission, Justice M. Jagannadha Rao, to head a five-member committee to go into Civil Procedure Code amendments, which came into effect from July 1 and on which lawyers went on a nation-wide strike.

The Apex court while upholding the constitutional validity of the CPC amendments in a public interest petition had observed that a committee would be constituted and members of the Bar could give their comments on the controversial amendments and the committee shall submit its report to the court in four months.

Accordingly the committee, which includes the former Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, senior counsel, Kapil Sibal, and C.S. Vaidyanathan and the Chairman of the Bar Council of India (BCI), D.V. Subba Rao, has been set up.

The committee which is empowered to co-opt any other person as a member is to consider devising a `model case management formula' as well as rules and regulations which should be followed while taking recourse to Sec. 89 of the CPC Amendment Act (which provides for alternate dispute resolution system).

The committee is also empowered to go into any other difficulties experienced by the lawyers, who could place them before the committee.

It is in this context that the committee has invited suggestions from the BCI and all State Bar Councils and bar associations within four weeks to enable the committee to complete its task within four months.

The committee, which had its first meeting here on November 7 decided to prepare a consultation paper and release it for eliciting public and professional suggestions before finalising its views and submitting the report to the court.