Chief justice of India SH Kapadia today blamed lack of settlement culture in the country for the rise in pendency of cases and people not preferring out-of-court resolution of disputes.
"In India we do not have a settlement culture. People are not picking settlement culture (in India). Mediation and arbitration as a mode of dispute settlement is popular and successful in other countries," justice Kapadia said.
"We must understand the value of time. This is one of the areas we need to focus on how to increase that culture," he said while speaking at a conference on mediation.
He said in order to achieve quick disposal of cases, the judiciary is thinking of setting up commercial courts.
Other Supreme Court judges at the conference also expressed similar views and emphasised the need to promote alternative dispute resolution mechanism to reduce the burden on courts.
"Nobody can be blamed for the load of work we have. But we have to find solution to get out of this mess," justice Altamas Kabir, the senior-most judge, said.
"It has become difficult to pay attention to the cases which deserve attention because of increasing number of cases. Space is to be created in courts to deal with cases which cannot be resolved through mediation like criminal, election and administrative cases," justice RV Raveendran said.
"We need to have space to focus on important cases," he said.
