ORDER Heard learned counsel for the appearing parties. This is a dispute between brothers. In our opinion, an effort should be made to resolve the dispute between the parties by mediation. In this connection, we would like to quote the following passages from Mahatma Gandhi’s book ‘My Experiments with Truth’ :- “I saw that the facts of Dada Abdulla’s case made it a very strong indeed, and that the law was bound to be on his side. But I also saw that the litigation, if it were persisted in, would ruin the plaintiff and the defendant, who were relatives and both belonged to the same city. No one knew how long the case might go on. Should it be allowed to continue to be fought out in court, it might go on indefinitely and to no advantage of either party. Both, therefore, desired an immediate termination of the case, if possible. I approached Tyeb Sheth and requested and advised him to go to arbitration. I recommended him to see his counsel. I suggested to him that if an arbitrator commanding the confidence of both parties could be appointed, the case would be quickly finished. The lawyers’ fees were so rapidly mounting up that they were enough to devour all the resources of the clients, big merchants as they were. The case occupied so much of their attention that they had no time left for any other work. In the meantime mutual ill-will was steadily increasing. I became disgusted with the profession. As lawyers the counsel on both sides were bound to rake up points of law in support of their own clients. I also saw for the first time that the winning party never recovers all the costs incurred. Under the Court Fees Regulation there was a fixed scale of costs to be allowed as between party and party, the actual costs as between attorney and client being very much higher. This was more than I could bear. I felt that my duty was to befriend both parties and bring them together. I strained every nerve to bring about a compromise. At last Tyeb Sheth agreed. An arbitrator was appointed, the case was argued before him, and Dada Abdulla won. But that did not satisfy me. This was more than I could bear. I felt that my duty was to befriend both parties and bring them together. I strained every nerve to bring about a compromise. At last Tyeb Sheth agreed. An arbitrator was appointed, the case was argued before him, and Dada Abdulla won. But that did not satisfy me. If my client were to seek immediate execution of the award, it would be impossible for Tyeb Sheth to meet the whole of the awarded amount, and there was an unwritten law among the Porbandar Memons living in South Africa that death should be preferred to bankruptcy. It was impossible for Tyeb Sheth to pay down the whole sum of about £ 37,000 and costs. He meant to pay not a pie less than the amount, and he did not want to be declared bankrupt. There was only one way. Dada Abdulla should allow him to pay in moderate instalments. He was equal to the occasion, and granted Tyeb Sheth instalments spread over a very long period. It was more difficult for me to secure the concession of payment by instalments than to get the parties to agree to arbitration. But both were happy over the result, and both rose in the public estimation. My joy was boundless. I had learnt the practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men’s hearts. I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby-not even money, certainly not my soul.” In our opinion, the lawyers should advise their clients to try for mediation for resolving the disputes, especially where relationships, like family relationships, business relationships, are involved, otherwise, the litigation drags on for years and decades often ruining both the parties. Hence, the lawyers as well as litigants should follow Mahatma Gandhi’s advice in the matter and try for arbitration/mediation. This is also the purpose of Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Let the matter be referred to the Bangalore Mediation Centre. The parties are directed to appear before the Bangalore Mediation Centre on 21.02.2011. Hence, the lawyers as well as litigants should follow Mahatma Gandhi’s advice in the matter and try for arbitration/mediation. This is also the purpose of Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Let the matter be referred to the Bangalore Mediation Centre. The parties are directed to appear before the Bangalore Mediation Centre on 21.02.2011. List after receiving report from the Mediation Centre. Order accordingly. ARTICLE Access to Information as a Human Right Authored by : Rahul Mishra, Sudipto Panda & Goutam Rai Human rights have been characterized as rights to those Resources and circumstances necessary for living a minimally good life1. Information rights include rights to create and communicate information (e.g., freedom of expression, freedom of association), to control others’ access to information (e.g., privacy and intellectual property), and rights to access information (e.g., freedom of thought, the right to read). Some information rights have been recognized as human rights in international instruments (e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Declaration on the Rights of the Child, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People). (see [2] Articles 18, 19, 25, and 26). It is further argued that the right to access is not merely a liberty right, but also a welfare right. That is, individuals’ information rights place duties on governments to provide access to information. We argue that access to information is indeed necessary in order to live a “minimally good life” in at least three ways. First, human beings are creatures with a capacity and a desire for knowledge. A life deprived of adequate access to information and knowledge is a seriously impoverished life. Second, knowledge is not only good in itself; it is pragmatically essential that persons have access to information if they are to have the capacity to exercise their other rights. In this sense, knowledge is what J. Rawls2 called a “primary good,” that is, it is a good that is useful to anyone, whatever his or her plan of life or conception of the good. Third, in order for persons to effectively exercise and protect their other rights, they need access to information. We conclude this by arguing that free public libraries are an essential public institution necessary for ensuring that citizens have adequate access to information. Third, in order for persons to effectively exercise and protect their other rights, they need access to information. We conclude this by arguing that free public libraries are an essential public institution necessary for ensuring that citizens have adequate access to information. As it will appeal to those rights listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other United Nations and International rights documents, this is a work in moral theory. It is not an exercise in explicating what follows from the U.N. declarations or international law. Rather one would argue for a particular understanding of the underpinning values promoted by the rights listed in these documents. And in doing so, We may argue that our human rights extend beyond what has been explicitly encoded in human rights document. Human rights have been defined as the rights that protect our interests in having “those resources and circumstances necessary for living a minimally good life”3. These rights are those we have simply in virtue of being human, and are not tied to membership in any particular political society or state. Such rights may be liberty rights- or welfare rights. In what follows, We will rely on this basic definition of a human right. There are a number of different accounts of the moral basis of these rights, but we need not enter into those debates here. We will, however, be taking the view according to which rights are seen as protecting our “interests.” By interests We do not merely mean something we find “interesting,” but our fundamental needs and goals as human beings4. Human rights are typically understood as those rights that states must respect. Typically, whether an action violates a human right depends on whether there was a state actor involved. A state may infringe a human right either by directly doing something that violates a right -e.g., by failing to provide basic education for children or by suppressing unpopular speech-or it may do so by failing to provide a legal structure necessary to prevent systematic abuses. So, for example, if a state fails to have any laws forbidding child labour, then it is guilty of a human rights violation. While many theories claim that the obligations required by respecting human rights only apply to governments, it seems perfectly natural to say that individual persons can always engage in human rights violations. So, for example, if a state fails to have any laws forbidding child labour, then it is guilty of a human rights violation. While many theories claim that the obligations required by respecting human rights only apply to governments, it seems perfectly natural to say that individual persons can always engage in human rights violations. It would be odd to say that a state is violating human rights by allowing a corporation to employ child labour, but that the corporation is not violating human rights when it (legally) employs children. Access to Information as a human right In this section, we argue that access to information is indeed a resource necessary for living a minimally good life. It should be noted, that, while we do not discuss the issue of information quality here, it is clear that in arguing that people have a right to access information, we mean that they have a right to access quality information (just as a right to food implies a right to sufficiently nutritious food). There are several dimensions of human rights organization Article 199 points out, “to evaluate the extent to which the right to education is realized, it is necessary to have access to literacy rates, enrolment rates, commuting times, dropout rates, and budgets, not only in the aggregate but disaggregated by gender, social class, geographic centers (urban, rural), religion and ethnicity.” It is particularly important in this context that governments and others who have crucial information with regard to actions that may violate rights have an obligation to provide citizens with this information10. Finally, and perhaps most fundamentally; we need access to information on a broad range of topics in order to have the capacity to exercise a plethora of our other human rights. For example, if one is denied access to information about how to apply for jobs, for benefits, how to access and use health care, then, for all intents and purposes, one is being denied the rights to such things. We have argued that we must to move beyond the conception of intellectual rights as mere liberty rights, which can be protected by the government letting individuals alone. We have argued that we must to move beyond the conception of intellectual rights as mere liberty rights, which can be protected by the government letting individuals alone. Given the pivotal role of access to information in the exercise of all other human rights, the right to information should be understood as a welfare right that places on governments (and perhaps others) the duty to provide people with information. 1.Nickel, J. 2007. Human rights. The stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. E.N. Zalta, (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2007/entries/rights-human/>. 2.Rawls, J.1971. A Theory of Justice. Oxford : Oxford University Press 3.supra no.1 4.Fox, C., Levitin, A., & Redman, T. 1994. The notion of data and its quality dimensions. Information Processing and Management. information quality, including accuracy, completeness, currency, and comprehensibility5. The inclusion of comprehensibility points to a further feature of information. Thus, fulfilling the right to access information will often require that we consider in what format the information will be most comprehensible to the people who need it. In addition, the right to information will often require that resources be devoted to giving people the needed skills to comprehend information, e.g., through efforts to increase literacy. In an article entitled “The Right to Information as a Leverage Right,” argues that, given that rights are interdependent, in order to be able to exercise our rights more generally, people must be given access to information.6 Courts have found, for example, that people have a right to information about environmental hazards and other potential threats to safety. It has been argued that rights to information extend to information related to reproductive health and choice7. These are just a couple of examples of the types of information to which we may argue persons have a right to if they are to exercise their other human rights. Below we discuss some of the most crucial ways in which information provides the necessary precondition for our ability to exercise our other rights. First, we need to be given access to information regarding what rights are. If we are not aware of what our rights are, or that we even have rights, then we cannot be our own or others’ advocates in exercising those rights. For instance, any are familiar with the Miranda warning made famous by American cop shows. This warning explicitly tells the suspect what his or her rights are. If we are not aware of what our rights are, or that we even have rights, then we cannot be our own or others’ advocates in exercising those rights. For instance, any are familiar with the Miranda warning made famous by American cop shows. This warning explicitly tells the suspect what his or her rights are. The reasoning behind this warning is that, absent such information about their rights, a defendant cannot take an appropriate role in the exercise of those rights8. With regard to public information, it has been argued that, “The right to access public information about one’s economic, social and cultural rights is not only related to these rights - it is precondition for their realization. Without information about the scope and content of their rights to health, housing or work, citizens are unable to determine whether their rights are being respected. International law recognizes this connection” ([17]), 18). Indeed, recognizing the importance of this in the preamble to the UDHR, the UN declared, “That every individual and every organ of society, keeping this declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these right and freedoms. “Second, once we know what our rights are we may need further information to know whether rights are being respected and how to press for their fulfilment. As the 5.Jagwanth, S. 2002. The right to information as a leverage right’. In The Right of Know, The Right to Live: Access to Information and Socio-Economic Justice. Calland, Richard and Tilley, Allison (eds.) Cape Town: Open Democracy Advice Centre. 6.Ibid. 7.Coliver, S. 1995. The Right to Know : Human rights and access to reproductive health information. 8.Miranda v. Arizona. 384 U.S. 436 (1966) 9.Article 19: The Global Campaign for Free Expression in association with Association for los Derechos Civiles. Buenos Aires. 2007. Access to Information: An Instrumental Right for Empowerment. <http//www.article 19.org> 10.Supra n.5 * * *