Panchayats Poised for Power: President Murmu Champions Legal Muscle for Village Dispute Resolution

President Droupadi Murmu on Friday strongly called for conferring Panchayats with the legal authority to settle and adjudicate disputes at the village level with a vision to enhancing social harmony and not burdening the courts. Delivering the keynote address at the First National Mediation Conference held in New Delhi, President Murmu underlined that village mediators are empowered socially but deprived of the legal powers to help them resolve disputes effectively, hence the pending cases end up reaching the higher courts.

 

She emphasized the importance of having a strong mechanism under the Mediation Act, 2023, to provide legal empowerment to Panchayats so that they can resolve disputes at the grassroots level and promote harmony in rural society. "Social harmony in villages is a necessary condition for making the country strong," Murmu added, observing that mediation has strong roots in Indian tradition but no institutional mechanism.

 

The President also pointed to the effectiveness of mediation in accelerating the dispensation of justice and in clearing courts, terming it as a useful tool for the actualization of the vision of a developed India by 2047. The conference also witnessed the inauguration of the Mediation Association of India, which was attended by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, CJI-designate B R Gavai, and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.

 

Source: Daily Excelsior