Litigation policy on the anvil

New Delhi: Soon the trend of government being the biggest litigant is likely to be reversed as a Committee of Secretaries has cleared the new National Litigation Policy. The policy will now go to a ministerial panel for final approval.

The Committee chaired by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, which met here, cleared the Law Ministry’s proposal for the new litigation policy. After being approved by the ministers’ panel, the National Litigation Policy, 2015 will be sent to the Union Cabinet for a final nod.

Sources said that the policy document has now been referred to a high-powered informal group of ministers comprising Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Law Minister D.V. Sadananda  Gowda.

Soon after the Modi government came to power, it had identified reducing government litigation as one of its priorities in a bid to streamline the judicial system.