HC tells TS Govt to Draft Litigation Policy to Reduce Cases

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Thursday pulled up the state government for not carving out ‘State Litigation Policy’ to bring down litigations from government agencies.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Tadakamalla Vinod Kumar, observed that the state cannot claim that it is a ‘model’ in all things, without crafting a litigation policy.

Chief Justice Aradhe expressed concern that precious time of the court was getting wasted and suggested that the government consult states like Karnataka, which had a policy in place since 1985.

He also expressed displeasure at the attitude of government officials in not filing counters in many cases because of which many cases were kept pending. The court also pointed to the practice adopted by government counsels to oppose every case. The non-responsiveness and attempts to mislead the court by the government counsels irked the bench.

It should be recalled that all state governments were in October 2009 asked to evolve a ‘state litigation policy' on the national policy.  The previous Chief Justice, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, had also pressed for the litigation policy and lamented the lack of motivation in bureaucracy to tackle the issue of the pendency of cases in the court.

Chief Justice Aradhe told Advocate General B. S. Prasad to persuade the state government to come up with a state litigation policy on a priority basis. The AG was also asked to ensure that the court was assisted properly by filing prompt responses. The court was hearing a writ petition filed by a retired district court employee seeking reimbursement of '2 lakh towards medical expenses.