Moily on legal reforms

PTI | January 6, 2011


Law Minister M Veerappa Moily
Law Minister M Veerappa Moily

Struggling to bring down the whopping over 3 crore pending court cases in the country, the Law Ministry proposes to soon place before the Union Cabinet a comprehensive National Litigation Policy which aims at disposing of cases within three years.

The proposed policy aims at reducing government litigation which forms a substantial chunk of pending cases.

"The proposed Litigation Policy will soon be before the Union Cabinet for its approval. We have received feedback from other ministries, including the Finance Ministry," Law Minister M Veerappa told PTI here.

"The new policy is expected to reduce average pendency time of cases from 15 years to 3 years, " he said, adding that it focuses on core issues like managing and conducting litigation in a cohesive manner.

"I will take all proactive steps to reduce the delays," he said.

The policy also ensures that bad cases are not needlessly pursued while good cases are won.

Several thousands of cases are pending in courts where government employees, both serving and retired, have challenged decisions of their departments with regard to promotions and benefits.

There are other set of cases where the common man has made government departments like PWD, DDA and police parties in their litigations.

In 2011, the government also proposes to bring a Right to Justice Bill on the lines of Right to Education Act to ensure the right to justice is not denied to the common man.

After several rounds of deliberations and much talk, the Law Ministry last year brought before the Cabinet the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010.

Due to sharp differences within the Cabinet, the Bill was referred to a Group of Ministers. After getting its nod, the Bill was cleared by the Cabinet in October and introduced in the Lok Sabha in the just held Winter Session.

According to the Bill, which is likely to be referred to a Standing Committee of Parliament, judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts would be subject to scrutiny of a high-level committee and those facing serious charges of misconduct may be asked to step down.

The much-delayed Bill provides for setting up of a five-member Oversight Committee to be headed by a former Chief Justice of India and including the Attorney General to go into complaints against members of the higher judiciary.

In 2009, the Law Ministry had received a major setback during the Monsoon Session of Parliament when Moily was forced to defer tabling the Judges Assets Bill in the Rajya Sabha as the combined Opposition -- and some Congress members -- objected to a particular clause that while judges will declare their assets, the same could not be put in public domain.

Moily had then assured to evolve a political consensus on the issue and bring out a comprehensive bill on judicial reforms.
 

Comments

 

Other News

What really happened in ‘The Scam That Shook a Nation’?

The Scam That Shook a Nation By Prakash Patra and Rasheed Kidwai HarperCollins, 276 pages, Rs 399 The 1970s were a

Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure released

The final ‘Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure’ by ‘India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion and Development’ was released in New Delhi on Monday. The Task Force was led by the

How the Great War of Mahabharata was actually a world war

Mahabharata: A World War By Gaurang Damani Sanganak Prakashan, 317 pages, Rs 300 Gaurang Damani, a Mumbai-based el

Budget expectations, from job creation to tax reforms…

With the return of the NDA to power in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, all eyes are now on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s full budget for the FY 2024-25. The interim budget presented in February was a typical vote-on-accounts, allowing the outgoing government to manage expenses in

How to transform rural landscapes, design 5G intelligent villages

Futuristic technologies such as 5G are already here. While urban users are reaping their benefits, these technologies also have a potential to transform rural areas. How to unleash that potential is the question. That was the focus of a workshop – “Transforming Rural Landscape:

PM Modi visits Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh in Moscow

Prime minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by president Vladimir Putin, visited the All Russian Exhibition Centre, VDNKh, in Moscow Tuesday. The two leaders toured the Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh. The Rosatom pavilion, inaugurated in November 2023, is one of the largest exhibitions on the histo

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter