Date:14/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/14/stories/2007111459620200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Increasing number of litigations a welcome trend, says Judge

Staff Reporter

Tamil Nadu assists other States in establishing mediation centres

— Photo: G. Moorthy

Spreading wings: Mediator Jerald Conyncham, Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla and Bar president Isaac Mohanlal taking part in a workshop in the city on Tuesday.

MADURAI: Increasing number of litigations was a welcome trend that reflected people’s confidence in the judicial system, said F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, Judge, Madras High Court and Chairman of Tamil Nadu Mediation and Conciliation Centre.

Addressing a workshop on mediation at the Madurai chapter of the centre on Tuesday, he said: “At the same time, we should find more and more ways such as Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) to resolve the disputes in a lawful manner, leaving no scope for illegal resolutions to problems.”

The Tamil Nadu Centre had assisted the High Courts at Delhi, Kolkata, Gujarat and Allahabad in establishing similar centres. There was also an invitation from Kerala. “Our centre is spreading its wings far and wide,” he exalted and said that the Chief Justice of Madras High Court, Ajit Prakash Shah, had evinced keen interest in it.

Pointing out that mediators attached to the centre were at present rendering their services free of charge, he said that a proposal exists to collect fees from the clients.

“We want to call it as honorarium and not fees. Very soon, necessary rules will be framed for the purpose,” he said.

Monthly mediation programmes were being conducted at the district centres presided over by two High Court Judges.

Once such district-level centre would be inaugurated in Madurai too, he added.

Jerald Conyncham, a mediator from the United Kingdom, explained different types of mediation techniques.

He elaborated on victim-offender mediation (which encourages an offender to apologise to the victim), mediation at workplace (between managers and other staff), Restorative Justice (where conflict within a community is resolved) and many others.

S. Jeyaprakasam, Head, Department of Gandhian studies, Madurai Kamaraj University; Isaac Mohanlal, chief coordinator of the Madurai chapter of TNMCC, and K. Samidurai, mediator, also spoke.