Legalities and Self Analysis

Aug 27

Court cases are costly and can last several generations - not to talk about the money, the effort, the stress and the heartburn involved. There is also a lot of frustration among the people with regard to the slowness of the wheels of justice. You may even end up feeling that the wheels are square. How do we obviate the need for such lengthy cases and a heavy backlog of cases in the courts? At present there are as many as one crore cases pending in the courts. There is a shortage of judges . There are less than half the judges available in the courts . The perceived slowness of justice is because the courts are short staffed.  Indeed it was a revelation as to how people got old on cases in which the children grow up and leave home , spouses die , someone commits suicide ( I hope GJ Rao is listening) and more often than not the compensation is granted to the  the aggrieved party when it really matters very less. How do we overcome this problem?

Dr Poondla Bhaskar Mohan was our visiting Prof from International Council for Alternative Dispute Resolution. He was addressing our combined class of Contract Management and Services Officers . For the next two hours we learnt all about the Lok Adaalats, courts of Law , how elders helped resolve the disputes and how through the third party help of Mediation, conciliation and Arbitration one can bring disputes in civil law to a speedy closure . I was reminded of my favorite Mythology the Mahabharat , in which all these methods were employed to prevent war but did not happen and hence total annihilation of the kauravas . Of course while employing all these methods now , all one can finally do is approach the court of law. Certain things which we believed of the law proved totally contrary to our expectations. Though Dr BabuMohan hastened to assure us that the courtof law , more often than not, got it right in the end. His repertoire of case studies in which he was involved personally made the other wise mundane class lively , interesting and educative.

Prof  Swarnalata's class was an entirely different kettle of fish. I still remember meeting her on 08Jun, when we kicked off the course . " You look very serious " She said to me and in the same breath she said " it would help if you smile once in a while". For the next two months our only contact with her was in the dining room during lunch when we wished her good afternoon every day without fail. Finally after going through various subjects , it was her turn to teach us about communication skills. In the beginning like fencers we were probing - or rather getting to know each other. Her questions were in a way to help us discover ourselves . Where did we study? How was our childhood ? ( It was fine) . Any defining moment? ( After a pause - " Let me see- there were quite a few defining moments..". ) Which school did we study in? ( Central School, St Patrick's , Many schools - My father had a transferable job, Army School, Little Flower { only for boys - adjustment with the girls may be difficult} St Francis {the instructor's school/ college - Justification - All round were boys schools} Did we have many friends? Were we popular ? ( Never thought about it) How many friends did we have? ( I started counting them Now - found out that I hardly had many). Which branch of the service were we involved in ? How many years of service? ( 4 people 30yrs + ,two 10 yrs) Those with more service -mostly critical - and those with less service relatively untouched by the rigidness of  behavior of the forces.

All this was proved by enacting a small play in which the youngster who did not complete the task at hand and was suitably urged  by the senior to complete the job in time- Interpretation - Parent (Critical ) Adult/ child the reaction of the junior who did not complete the task in time . Conclusion task best done in adult - adult interaction. A few pointers with regard to the body language and vocal inflections . How the overall posture played an important part in delivering the right message to the recipient. Real and artificial smile and how to differentiate the same....

 By now the class atmosphere was beginning to thaw. Under the expert probing by Prof Swarnalata the participants were becoming more animated. The probe continued in form of self analysis  questionnaire and exchanging of the self analysis instrument with your neighbour to see how he assessed you. Was there divergence in our perception and what aspects we were to improve to ensure that our communication skills stood the test of time and interviews (when we went in for interviews for our jobs in our next innings) I must confess that under the expert tutelage of Prof Swarnalata we (I) learnt a lot about ourselves and our course-mates.  Prof Swarnalata's class was interesting and revealing and it was with great reluctance that we had to end the class. Family commitments beckoned and of course the time for the class was at the end. We are thoroughly impressed with her and hope to pick up pointers about life which we had hitherto-fore not paid much attention to... In the end she labelled us as per the mythological characters Jagpal- Karna, Prasad - Bhishma, Himanshu - Arjuna, Sivaram- Krishna , Sandhya - Kunti and me....