NEW DELHI: The trend among central ministries and departments to file appeals against court orders as a “default reaction” and not as a considered policy decision, has been termed as a “major challenge” to curb litigation in which the government is a party.
At a recent conference on the effective and efficient management of government litigation, more than two dozen union secretaries and senior law officials recommended establishing clear criteria for clearing service appeals and other matters, nominating a designated officer in each department for coordinated handling of litigation, and establishing mechanisms to implement court rulings within a specific time frame, so that repetitive litigation and contempt are reduced to a minimum.
The conference, organized by the Federal Law Ministry here on Saturday, pointed out the major challenges such as frequent lawsuits due to non-uniform implementation of the legal position, failure to conduct due consultations before filing counter-affidavits, diverging positions taken by different ministries, lack of coordination between departments and committee advisors, and the tendency to file appeals as a hypothetical reaction and not as a considered political decision.
According to officials and details shared by the Ministry, in infrastructure and compensation matters, concerns have been raised about escalating land compensation claims and growing interest obligations, routine challenges to arbitration awards, and technical complexity in infrastructure contracts leading to insufficient legal scrutiny.
Fragmented coordination between technical departments and legal teams, and underuse of alternative dispute resolution and pre-litigation mediation, were also cited as areas of concern.
The main focus of the deliberations was to reduce avoidable litigation and delays in filing lawsuits through stronger filtering, better coordination, and early dispute resolution.
The Law Ministry had informed the Rajya Sabha in February last year that the central government was a party to nearly seven lakh cases pending before the courts, with the Finance Ministry alone being one of the litigants in nearly two cases.
Citing data available on the Legal Information and Briefing Management System, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said: “There are around seven lakh cases pending where the Government of India is a party. Of these, in around 1.9 lakh cases, the Finance Ministry has been mentioned as a party.”
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