Mediation week: 97 pending cases resolved in 6 days

At least 97 pending cases were solved within six days in Midnapore Court during the mediation week organised by Calcutta High Court Mediation and Conciliation Committee with district legal service authority.

The mediation week was observed from April 24 to 29 at Midnapore Court to bring in solutions to the long pending cases and the authority managed to solve a record number in minimum time.

It may be mentioned that the Calcutta High Court Mediation and Conciliation Committee have been organising such programmes in different districts across the state to solve old cases on priority basis.

"At least 97 cases were solved within six days of mediation week. Those cases were pending for the past 8-10 years. A lot of money and time was saved by this effort," said Ajoyendra Bhattacharya, secretary, district legal service authority.

On Saturday, Justice Biswanath Somadder, the chairman of Calcutta High Court Mediation and Conciliation Committee, visited Midnapore Court along with assistant secretary Sourav Bhattacharya and a few other judges from the district court.

"The property related disputes between brothers, marital conflicts and some other important cases were resolved within few hours. People congratulated us to take such a step," Bhattacharya added.

"It is only due to lack of knowledge that people have not used this facility before. Awareness campaigns should be arranged before the start of mediation weeks in the districts," lawyers said.

Midnapore district court has huge number of pending cases. "At least 1 lakh cases are pending in this court. Around 1,000 cases register in a month in which only 50 percent remain unsolved at the end of the month. Most of the cases are related to marital and property related disputes," lawyers mentioned.

"The mediators discussed the issue with two parties who filed cases in the court. They tried to settle the matter looking at the present situation. They also suggested the contesting parties to withdraw the cases or the written opinions of the two parties regarding cases that were sent to the judges for their final judgment. Money and time can be saved by this process too," Bhattacharya added.