Mediation can make North Eastern states litigation free: SC judge

Agartala: North Eastern states have the potential to be 'litigation free' states in the country as it is an area where people settle disputes in the traditional way of mediation, Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur said on Saturday.

"This region is an area where people settle their disputes in traditional manner. Mediation is practised in the region to settle the disputes," Justice Lokur said while inaugurating the 'Regional Conference of Mediation' here.

The former Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court said he had experience of seeing the process of mediation in tribal societies in the region and added that there are many litigation-free districts in the region.

He also appealed to the advocates in particular and all sections of people in general to view the process of mediation from different perspective and with a humane angle.

Another justice of the apex court, Amitava Roy, who was the keynote speaker of the conference, said mediation is a living process existent in the tribal society which can bring early relief to litigants and can reduce the volume of litigations in courts.

Chief Justice of Tripura High Court Deepak Gupta said family disputes can be solved through mediation process.

"Where communication has broken, mediation can help bridging the gap in case of family disputes," he added.

Justice S Talapatra of Tripura High Court said, "Our generation is witnessing the sunset of mediation culture that kept the society together for centuries. We require to arrest the decline. The court related mediation is the foundation for fostering the culture where we must incubate democratic social order and the rule of law."