RATNESH KUMAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned counsel for the petitioners, Mr. Shashi Shekhar Kumar Prasad, learned Assisting Counsel to Principal Additional Advocate General No.2 for the State and Mr. Bindhyachal Singh, learned counsel who appears for the Patna High Court as well as the Bihar State Legal Services Authority.

(2.) The petitioners in this writ petition are practising Advocates of this Court and the writ petition while espousing the individual grievance is also filed in representative capacity as the relief so prayed by the petitioners herein would be covering the cases of other mediators as well, whether practising in this Court or the courts below.

(3.) The limited grievance raised by learned counsel for the petitioners is that although they have been providing assistance to the courts as trained mediators and though they are duly qualified as such but neither the Bihar State Legal Services Authority (hereinafter referred to as 'the Legal Services Authority'), nor the State has taken any steps to ensure that they are properly recompensed for their services. In other words, the grievance of the petitioners in this writ petition is that although on principle the courts as well as 'the Legal Services Authority' have decided on payment of fee to the mediators for the service rendered by them but the actual payment has evaded the mediators. The second relief prayed by the petitioners is for direction to 'the Legal Services Authority' for recommending their respective names for accreditation to the Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi.