FOR SPEEDY DELIVERY OF JUSTICE ?

An  App  called  “  AdJourn  “

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DNA ( 30 July ) carried a report with following headline :

“ BMC tracks counsels, to fire those below par “

The civic body is using a software to keep track of its 60,000 court cases

According to an official, the counsels’ performance will be monitored through the number of adjourn to date

“ We have found that counsels kept running the case for years by getting new dates and continued to charge for each appearance in court “ , said the official

Look at what I found at :

http://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/bmc-spent-rs-105-cr-on-court-cases/543581

The BMC spent over Rs.100 cr in last 13 years as payment to lawyers, who represented the civic body in various court cases. Majority of the cases pertained to illegal constructions and the highest paid lawyer was senior counsel K K Sanghavi, who received Rs.19.13 cr as legal fees from the BMC in last 13 years.

This was revealed in a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by activist Anil Galgali.

The reply from the corporation further showed that between 2001 to 2014, the BMC engaged 151 lawyers and paid them Rs.105.06 cr as legal fees. The top10 lawyers whom the BMC paid the highest fees were Sanghvi, Anil Sakhre, who was paid Rs.10.58 cr, G E Vahanvaty (Rs.4.9 cr), E P Bharucha (Rs.4.28 cr, S U Kamdar (Rs.3.65  cr), Ramesh Bhat Rs.2.63 cr), Pallav Sisodiya Rs.2.06 cr), J Rais (Rs.1.85 cr, (B L Chabbria (Rs.1.8 cr) and (Subhash Vyas (Rs.1.8 cr). These top 10 lawyers were paid a total of around Rs.51.88 cr, which comes to 49.37% of the total expenses.

The law department of the BMC, however, informed him that it does not have record about the success rate of the cases.

“Till now no such independent record is available with the department,” the law department stated in the reply.

Now , there are 2 types of cases , viz:

TYPE A

Cases filed by others on BMC

Where BMC will save lawyer’s fees if “ No of hearing dates “ are reduced . Call this a SAVING

TYPE B

Cases filed by BMC on others

Where winning that case would result in some “ Earnings “ for BMC . Call this a EARNING

Hence , the lawyer’s fees should be decided based on SAVINGS ( in case of TYPE A ) ,

Or EARNINGS ( in case of TYPE B ) – which accrue in the shortest possible time

Based on statistics for the past 10 years , BMC should compute , a FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION CURVE ( a BELL shaped curve ) , for the “ No of Hearing Dates “ and calculate the STANDARD DEVIATION ( Sigma ) and calculate ( + / - ) 3 SIGMA limits

That would tell the BMC , “ Most likely Number of Hearing Dates “ for any given case

Let us say , this figure comes out 20

And BMC already knows in advance , “ Lawyer’s fees per appearance “ ( say, Rs 5000 )

So , estimating exactly ( with a probability of 99 % ) , HOW MUCH this case will cost , is a no brainer ! It would be Rs 100,000 ( for 20 hearings )

Now tell the Counsel :

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Sir , this is the Upper Limit of the amount that we will pay you ( Rs 100,000 ) for fighting this case

But , from 10^th “ date “ onwards , we will start deducting , Rs 5,000 per each additional hearing , beyond 10^th ( - a PENALTY ),

And ,

For each date less than 10 , we will pay you a BONUS of Rs 5,000 !

And , we will DOUBLE the BONUS amount so arrived , if you WIN the case  !

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Next witness a miracle !

All cases will start getting completed in 5 hearings !  May be in months , instead of in years !

I have a feeling that , overall , BMC will save crores of rupees ( despite paying BONUSES to lawyers ) , since it would save a huge amount of TIME that its officers are currently spending in courts ( - and earning TA / DA ! )

After reading this , do not be surprised if some Start Up ( could be :  MeetUrPro / LawRato / Vakilsearch /  IndiaFilings / Vahura  ) , comes up with a Mobile App called , “  AdJourn “ , to enable BMC lawyers to enter the adjourned date in the App which instantly and automatically , updates the CASE STATUS on the BMC web site and simultaneously , on the web site of the concerned court  !

Call this , “ Transparency at its Best “ ( - also to judge the performance of the JUDGE ! )

With more than 30 million cases pending in Courts all over India ,”  AdJourn “ could change the very landscape of India’s Legal Management System , if adopted by all the Courts !

This could be one more “ App for Everything “ – which Shri Modi would love to launch !

20  Aug  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs