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Coal India and its subsidiaries will seek for amicable end to legal disputes to become ‘litigation free’ entity

State-run miner Coal India Ltd and its eight subsidiaries will seek for an amicable end to some 18,000 legal disputes they are embroiled in as it strives to become a 'litigation free' entity. It will also put in place a system to monitor important cases and performance of its panel of lawyers.

According to a vision document prepared by the company's human resources development wing, Coal India and its subsidiaries will review all court cases for possible out-of-court settlement by December 2015. The miner will also revise the policy for empanelling advocates and put in place a performance monitoring system for them by November. Coal India is entangled in 1,500 court cases and disputes, according to executives at its legal department, while its subsidiaries are involved in about 16,500 legal cases.

These cases include criminal proceedings, public interest litigations, land acquisition and title disputes, civil cases including eviction suits, arbitration proceedings and consumer cases. Litigations also include service and employee grievances, labour disputes, royalty and surface rents, and consumer proceedings. Proceedings in these cases are at different levels of adjudication before courts, tribunals, inquiry officers and appellate tribunals.

Coal India realises that any adverse decision may have a material effect on its business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations and cash flow. Settlement of a legal cause  can take between a day and seven years and a lot of effort and time goes into each case the company has to face and handle, said a top executive with the miner.

According to a compilation of legal disputes carried out by the company at the time of its initial public offer in 2010, Coal India and its subsidiaries were entangled in 14,000 cases. Of this about 513 involved Coal India, while the rest 13,500 were against its subsidiaries.

In 2010, Coal India and its subsidiaries were facing 1,839 civil suits involvingRs 103.5 crore, 342 criminal proceedings, 35 public interest litigations involving Rs 11.3 crore, and 1,637 tax cases involving Rs 5,540.5 crore. Besides, there were some 402 arbitration matters involvingRs 212.8 crore, 5,672 service matters and 3,083 land related cases.

source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com