UNION LAW MINISTER
OUTLINES STEPS FOR EXPEDITING JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM
The Union Minister
of Law and Justice, Shri K. Jana Krishnamurthi has called upon
the States to expedite setting up of all the 1734 Fast Track Courts
by December 31, 2002 as directed by the Supreme Court of India.
He said that it was a matter of great concern that as on October
31, 2002, 1225 Fast Track Courts have been notified out of which
only 908 such courts were functional. He said that since the project
was cent per cent funded by the Centre, States and Union Territories
should expedite its completion and make them functional. Inaugurating
a day-long conference of Law and Home Secretaries of States and
Union Territories here this morning, the Law Minister said that
Government would give top priority to the disposal of human rights
cases and no citizen of India should languish in jails beyond
what was permitted by the law. He was happy to note that during
a brief span, Fast Track Courts had disposed of over 64000 criminal
cases.
Talking of measures
taken so far in developing infrastructure for augmenting judiciary
at all levels, the Law Minister outlined the steps for expediting
justice delivery system in the area of civil, criminal and constitutional
cases. He said that while the amendments effected recently in
the Civil Procedure Code and the Legal Services Authorities Act
were designed to expedite civil cases and decongest the courts,
the Government was seized of changing the procedural laws in criminal
cases and it was awaiting the report of Justice V.S. Malimath
Committee in this regard. As for the constitutional law, the Minister
said that only the Supreme Court and the High Courts dealt with
such matter. The Government was taking steps to reduce pendency
of constitutional cases in the Supreme Court and the
High Courts. The Centre was moving in a direction to ensure that
all vacancies in the High Courts were filled by the end of March
2003 and thereafter there wouldn’t be arrears of vacancies. The
Government was also working out a mechanism to ensure objectivity
and fairness in decision making process to obviate litigations.
The Minister sought the cooperation of Law and Home Secretaries
of States in expediting the filling of vacancies in High Courts
as also in subordinate courts by the end of the current financial
year.
Shri Krishnamurthi
also sought the cooperation of States and Union Territories in
top grading the standards of legal education in the country to
enable our law graduates to meet the challenges of globalisation,
quality of products and services and competition.
The Minister of State
for Law, Justice, Coal and Mines, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, who
also spoke on the occasion, gave an overview of the steps taken
by the Government so far in improving procedural laws and infrastructure
of courts for expediting justice delivery system. He said that
courts would give top priority to dispensation of criminal justice.
He also called for improving training system for judges in the
subordinate courts.
The Union Home-cum-Justice
Secretary, Shri N. Gopalaswami, in his remarks, called for addressing
the problem of overloading our judicial system so as to decongest
the courts. Earlier, Additional Secretary (Justice), Shri Surendra
Nath gave an overview of judiciary in the country and the steps
taken by the Government for improving its infrastructure.
Today’s conference
reviewed the progress of Fast Track Courts, improvement in the
judicial infrastructure of States and Union Territories under
the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, Family Courts, filling of vacancies
in subordinate courts and High Courts, computerization in High
Courts, computerization and networking of courts in the four metropolises,
financial implication of raising per million population judge
strength, revision of court fees and amendment of the Contempt
of Courts Act.
