In a significant move, the Union Law Ministry has issued a slew of guidelines to all the ministries and departments of the Government of India to ensure timely adjudication of cases where the government is a litigant.
An office memo (OM) issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice said that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will help prevent unnecessary litigation and streamline inter-departmental coordination in litigation. The guidelines are titled ‘Directive for the Efficient and Effective Management of Litigation by Government of India’.“This directive is designed to establish a system to ensure effective, fficient, integrated and coordinated management of litigation involving the Ministries/ Departments of the Central Government and its attached and subordinate offices and autonomous bodies, before courts and tribunals and other quasi-judicial fora to promote good governance in pursuit of the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047," the Department of Legal Affairs said in the OM issued to the Secretaries of the Union government.
New guidelines suggest classification of cases and dealing with sensitive matters with a direction that legal cell in each ministry/department should classify cases into highly sensitive, sensitive and regular categories. Highly sensitive cases (involving national security, law and order, policy or significant financial stakes) should be reviewed by the concerned secretary for an appropriate course of action. The secretary may convene a meeting with all relevant officials to strategise. This exercise should be undertaken once the case is initiated before a forum and should continue throughout the life cycle of the case.
- SLPs before Supreme Court must not be filed in routine manner, as per a guideline. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 136 must be invoked only in exceptional and special circumstances. The Law ministry, has enlisted certain measures, which are an indicative list of principles to be followed while filing of Special Leave Petitions under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. These include the Cases with significant domestic or international consequences/ ramifications; Matters of substantial importance relating to social justice, especially those concerning marginalized or disadvantaged groups or communities;Cases raising legal questions of general public policy or interpretation of constitution;Cases involving legal questions with significant financial implications for the country;Cases where substantial and grave injustice has occurred, and no other remedy is available.
Besides , under situations where there has been a clear violation of the principles of natural justice or a denial of fair hearing;Where different High Courts have passed contradictory orders on a specific subject.Assignment of panel counsel, their periodic performance reviewThe guidelines state that assignment of Panel Counsel to the ministries/departments for the conduct of litigation may be undertaken while taking into account their subject specific expertise and competency, as far as feasible.
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