REMOVAL OF ROAD BLOCKS ON LEGAL REFORMS IN INFRASTRUCTURE
The Union
Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley
has said that the country needed convergence of economic interests
with attendant speed in it to accelerate the pace of infrastructure
development. Speaking at the inaugural function of a two-day International
Conference on Legal Reforms : the Way Ahead, organised by Confederation
of Indian Industry (CII)here this afternoon, Shri Jaitley said
that several laws like the Electricity Bill, the Convergence Bill
and amendment in arbitration law, Oil Regulatory Board
Bill and other laws to usher India in a strong private
– public partnerships in highways and other infrastructure development
were on the anvil. The Minister said that traditional Indian jurisprudence
has been out of tune in resolving issues of infrastructural laws.
The Minister said that once new laws were in position, private
sector would come forward to participate in the development of
infrastructure. In this connection, the Law Minister cited the
success stories of telecom reforms and corporatisation of major
ports with private
participation and hoped that we needed to shun our traditional
thinking that only the States could develop and maintain infrastructure.
The Minister suggested marketing of our success stories.
The Law Minister
talked at length about judicial infrastructure, the role of regulators
and the need to minimise burden of courts in order to get over
the road blocks to hassle-free all round infrastructural development.
He said that the Government was considering changes in the Arbitration
and Conciliation Act 1996.
The Chief Justice
of India, Shri Justice B.N. Kirpal, in his inaugural address,
called for a judicial transplant with simple laws, simple procedure
and a panel of arbitrators with fixed fees to reduce litigation
in Courts and privatisation of disputes resolution in infrastructure
to accelerate the pace of infrastructural development. He also
suggested end to appeals as today issues were speed and quick
disposal. The other option was to increase the strength of Judges
or take away most of cases from Courts as it was not necessary
that all cases should travel to High Court and Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice
of India said arbitration should be made compulsory in economic
disputes although it has not been unfortunately successful in
our country. He lamented flight of arbitration from India because
of delay and resort to Courts and said that the 1996 Arbitration
and Conciliation Act should not become a dead letter like the
1940 Arbitration Act. He suggested doing away with daily fees
of arbitrator by fixing it to make arbitration a success story.
Shri Justice Kirpal
suggested laws to control frivolous litigation. He said Public
Interest Litigation, initially for protection of human rights,
has been derailed and should be curbed. Economic matters should
be resolved by specialist fora like regulators and not by Courts
as Judges lacked understanding of complex issues. Besides, a beginning
needed to be made to reduce judicial intervention as Courts were
primarily meant for criminal justice.
