Manoharpur (AsiaNews) – With the approval of the Justice Department, a group of Catholic priests is going ahead with a programme to promote pre-litigation conciliation that would avoid expensive legal fees to the poor. The scheme will start in the Manoharpur, a small village in West Bengal, about 160 kilometres from Kolkata.

The Church initiative comes in the wake of the government decision to shelve a pre-litigation conciliation (shalishi) bill in the face of opposition pressure. It will enable people to settle minor issues without going to court.

"Literacy among the poor in rural Bengal is low. Once the people there get embroiled in legal disputes, they lose peace for ever," said Fr Faustine Brank, an attorney who is also co-ordinator of the legal aid unit of the archdiocese of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta).

According to Fr Brank, villagers wanted the priests to help them get over the never-ending property disputes and frequent disharmony in families.

The priests picked Manoharpur for the project's first run because the people there had first made such a proposal.

Mgr Salvadore Lobo, Bishop of Baruipur in West Bengal, spoke to AsiaNews about the initiative.

"Fr Faustine Brank is a priest of my diocese and a registered lawyer practicing in the Calcutta High Court," Bishop Lobo said.

"As bishop in charge of social services in the diocese of West Bengal, I endorse the programme. Legal assistance is an important and urgent need here.  The poor are drained of all their financial resources due to the avarice of the lawyers who unnecessarily drag their cases through lengthy litigation," he explained.

"Here in West Bengal, most of the cases are family matters and land disputes. Settlements can take years and the poor are left destitute without any income," he added. "So the pre-litigation conciliation programme is an important ministry of justice and peace that the Church can offer and from which everyone can benefit."