Year End Review: Ministry of Law & Justice

DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS

Legal reform has been one of the priorities of Department of Legal Affairs.  The Department is envisaging decentralizing the availability of legal assistance to the Ministries/Departments by providing Indian Legal Service Officers in house in each of the Ministry/Department. 

A National Litigation Policy is under preparation.

Based on the recommendations of the Law Commission, it is proposed to introduce a Bill to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996 in the next session of the Parliament.

For filling up of a large number of vacancies of Members, Income Tax Administrative Tribunal (total 48) proposals are in final stage. 

Five (5) additional posts of ASGs created one each for the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Patna, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Gujarat for effective handling of Government litigation.  Appointments against these five posts are under process. In Supreme Court also, to take care of Government litigation, 209 Group A, 186 Group B and 101 Group C Panel Counsels were appointed Panels for other courts/tribunals were under preparation.

The issue regarding setting up of Commercial Divisions in the High Courts has been pending with the Law Commission. 

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

The Report submitted by the Ramanujam Committee is being examined. A dedicated group of officers have been constituted to identify enactments and it categorized them:

          

(i)                 637 Acts to be repealed by Parliament;

(ii)               84 Acts to be repealed by the State Legislature;

(iii)             58 Acts to be repealed by Parliament in consultation with the State Governments; and

(iv)             28 Acts relating to the State Reorganizations in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

            36 obsolete laws and 90 redundant laws have been identified and introduced in the Parliament for repeal.

            Various Amendment Acts numbering about 200 are being examined (in consultation with the concerned Ministries/Departments) for their repeal.

            Law Commission’s four (4) interim Reports (248^th to 251^st) on the “Obsolete Laws: Warranting immediate Repeal”, (which recommended for repeal of 72, 113, 74 and            30 obsolete Acts respectively) are also being processed.

            A list of 902 Appropriation Acts have been prepared including Railway Appropriation Acts and State Appropriation Acts and is seeking the opinion of  the Attorney        general  on the repeal of  State Appropriation Acts. 

         

The proposals to pursue the Assam Legislative Council Bill, 2013 and the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council (Repeal) Bill, 2012 have been processed and approval is awaited. 

On an average, 200 subordinate legislation proposals were received every month and scrutinized, vetted in a time bound manner. 

35 Reports of the Law Commission on various subject matters falling under Concurrent list are under examination in consultation with the State Governments/UTs.

Department is constituting two dedicated Groups one for English and one for Hindi, for updation of all Central Acts placed on the website of the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Department is administratively responsible for the Election Laws and the Election Commission.  On receipt of the Report of the Law Commission on Electoral Reforms, the proposal will be examined in consultation with the all the Stakeholders and the Political Parties on priority basis. 

Department is effectively monitoring 218 cases pending in Supreme Court and various High Courts as on 1^stOctober, 2014 relating to Election Laws. Out of these 218 cases, Department is respondent in 137 cases and proforma party in the remaining 81 cases.

THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE:

Passage of the Constitution 121^st Amendment Bill, 2014 along with the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 by both the Houses of Parliament for setting up of a participative and transparent mechanism for appointment of Judges in Supreme Court and High Courts.  The Constitution 121^st Amendment Bill has subsequently  been ratified by the State Legislatures of Tripura, Rajasthan, Goa, Haryana, Mizoram, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu as on 15/12/2014;

Increase in the strength of High Court Judges from 906 to 984 to tackle the problem of pendency and backlog of cases in High Courts.  The Judges strength of High Courts of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab & Haryana was increased with effect from 1^st July, 2014.  Subsequently, the Judges strength of High Courts of Karnataka, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand was increased with effect from 14^th October, 2014;

Release of financial assistance to the tune of Rs.825 crores to the States for improvement in judicial infrastructure, 2025 additional Court Rooms and 1699 additional residential units are under construction at present throughout the country; and

The National Lok Adalats held by the judiciary on 6^th December, 2014 disposed off 44 lakh cases pending in various Courts in the country which would bring down the pendency in the Courts.

Courtesy: pib.nic.in