Nyaya Mitra Scheme

Table of Contents

Nyaya Mitra Scheme- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: Governance, Administration and Challenges- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Minister for Law and Justice, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha informed about participation of Nyaya Mitra Scheme.

About: Nyaya Mitra (NM) Scheme aims to facilitate expeditious disposal of 10-15 years old pending cases in High Courts and Subordinate Courts.
Mandate: Nyaya Mitra aims at assisting the district judiciary in reduction of decade old pending court case.
Selection of Districts: Districts selected based on highest pendency of court cases over 10 years of period sourced from National Judiciary Data Grid (NJDG) database.
Who is Nyaya Mitra?
- Nyaya mitra (NM) is a retired judicial officer/executive officer, having legal degree/background who is located at High Courts/District Courts.

Nyaya Mitra provides assistance to the judiciary in reduction of decade old pending court case, liaising with the different departments to fast disposal of cases, referring cases to Lok Adalat. etc.
Nyaya Mitra’s responsibilities would include among others-
- Assistance to litigants who are suffering due to delay in investigations or trial, by actively identifying such cases through the National Judicial Data Grid,
- Providing legal advice and connecting litigants to DLSA, CSC Tele Law, other government agencies and civil society organisations.
Nyaya Mitra also-
- Refers the marginalized applicants to Lok Adalats for dispute resolution and
- Render assistance towards prison reforms within the district, in coordination with the district judiciary and other stakeholders.

Since introduction of Nyaya Mitra programme in 2017, a total of 38 Nyaya Mitras were engaged in the States of Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
The Nyaya Mitras engaged so far have assisted the Court concerned in disposal of 3495 old cases which includes matrimonial cases, accident claim and also criminal cases.
- 80 Nyaya Mitras will be engaged across the country from 2021-2026.
For the year 2021-2022, 11 Nyaya Mitras have been engaged in the 11 District Courts in the month of April 2022.
No Nyaya Mitras could be engaged in 2020-21 due to the closure of courts during the COVID lockdown.