Secretaries' panel clears litigation policy

The proposed National Litigation Policy (NLP), which seeks to reverse the trend of the government being the biggest litigant, has been cleared by a committee of secretaries and will now go to a ministerial panel.

The Committee chaired by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, which met on Tuesday evening, cleared the law ministry proposal.

It 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, sources in the government told PTI.

After being approved by the ministers' panel, NLP 2015 will be sent to the Union Cabinet for a final nod.

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

The proposed policy, which seeks to replace the one brought by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, will bring in, a mechanism to reduce government litigation and make it an efficient and responsible litigant.

The UPA government had launched the policy in 2010 but could not implement it in totality. The present government is working to reduce the burden of the courts for better deliverance. The policy will help all the Union Ministries and Departments define types of cases to be pursued in courts and those which need to be dropped after review.

The policy suggests a mechanism to reduce filing of cases by or against the government.