The Centre has on Wednesday informed the Delhi High Court that a ‘new and revised’ National Litigation Policy (NLP) was in the works and would be in place in times to come.
The bench comprising of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a PIL seeking implementation of the NLP launched in June 2010.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, appearing for the Law Ministry, told the court that presently there was an application called Legal Information Management and Briefing System (LIMBS) which allows various government departments to see the status of their cases at a glance.
“A new and revised NLP would be in place in times to come,” he said.
A PIL filed by N Bhaskara Rao a mass communications expert and Shanmugo Patro, a lawyer, has said that NLP was launched in 2010 with the purpose that the government should not involve in frivolous litigation, especially where the stakes are not high.
“The policy aimed to transform the government into an efficient and responsible litigant. The underlying purpose of the policy is to reduce government litigation in courts so that valuable court time is spent in resolving other pending issues to enable the average pendency of a case in a court reduced from 15 years to 3 years,” the petition has said.
Patro told the court that the central government has been over the years claiming before various fora that the NLP would be implemented soon, but to date, nothing has been done. He urged the court to issue a notice in the matter, but the bench declined to do so at the present stage.
Taking note of the ASG’s submission, the bench simply adjourned the matter to February 12.
