THE LEAFLET BULLETIN

The contours of mediation in commercial disputes

What is pre-institution mediation under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, as interpreted by the Supreme Court recently?

ON?August 17, a Supreme Court bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy, in the case of?M/s Patil Automation Pvt. Ltd. & Ors. versus Rakheja Engineers Pvt. Ltd., observed that pre-institution mediation is mandatory, owing to the design and scope of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, as?amended in 2018, by which?Section 12A?was incorporated, which includes the word ‘shall’ and goes a long way to assist the Court reeling under an extraordinary docket explosion. Moreover, any suit instituted in violation of the mandate under Section 12A must be visited with?suo motu?rejection under?Order VII, Rule 11?of the Civil Procedure Code (‘CPC’) by courts, the bench clarified. The declaration was made effective from August 20, 2022.

The origins of Indian constitutionalism can be traced to the fifth century B.C.

IN?Chota Nagpur, the village community owned the entire land. There was no system by which land could be owned as private property by any individual. In the Munda areas, the village headman was called the?Munda, and the head of a?killi, which links several villages together, especially for mutual help during war, was known as?Manki, who was always elected by the village headman. The local chiefs received no rent; only assistance in war and ‘salami’ at festivals. In?Oraon?areas, community ownership of land was known as ‘bhuinhari’?held by the original settlers, and that was rent free; the raja of local chiefs had separate land known as ‘Majhas’.

The company bahadur in action in a remote tribal region

The company was regularly indulging in depriving these tribals of land, the only means of their livelihood. These agricultural workers began to be reduced to slaves in their own lands; the tribals began to object. The immediate provocation was the introduction of outsiders into the region, popularly known as ‘dikus’ or ‘sud’, by the company, for making it easy for them to collect the revenue.

The State should provide reasonable accommodation to the disabled, and not consider their medical condition as a barrier

JUDGEMENTS?of courts can grant appropriate enforceable remedies, but as a body of law, judgements may have flaws due to poor legal reasoning the court adopted, or simply due to a judicial oversight it committed.

One such judgement was in the case of?Sri Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl versus Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited & Ors., delivered by the Tripura High Court last month.

What is the case about?

The petitioner was an employee of Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited. During the course of performing his duties, he met with an accident which rendered him disabled. He was not paid salary by the Corporation because he could not perform the duties he owed to the Corporation as their employee, though he was willing to join and perform duties which would be commensurate with his disability.

Milords’ subsistence

SEEMS?some thinking heads

Have created avoidable mess

In their over-enthusiasm to

Grant milords more largesse

The rules were amended for

Supreme milords’ subsistence

A chauffeur, a domestic help

And secretarial assistance

These were tailored for milords

Continuing to serve the nation

By staying on in the big metros

Practising penance of arbitration

But there are some old chiefs

Who chose not to invite tensions

They live in distant small towns

Solely dependent on their pensions

They are stymied by the new rules

Hailed by some brethren as great

‘Cause they neither need chauffeurs

Nor secretarial assistants to dictate!

They feel reimbursement was better

Than staff employment mish-mash

For there is no perk which is better

Than the option of getting hard cash!