'As of now, our corporates have to go London, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore for arbitration cases. The central government wants to make our country an arbitration hub which is as good as any other in the world. This will give our lawyers many opportunities,' he said.
India can be a lucrative international arbitration hub, and this will give our lawyers many more opportunities, said Union law minister Veerappa Moily in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
"As of now, our corporates have to go London, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore for arbitration cases. The central government wants to make our country an arbitration hub which is as good as any other in the world. This will give our lawyers many opportunities," he said.
Moily was in Ahmedabad to launch the 'Mission mode programme for reduction of pendency in courts (Gujarat state)', which aims to cut the number of pending cases in the state's subordinate courts by upto 40% in six months.
After the launching the programme, the minister said the Union law ministry had set the target of reducing pendency of cases by upto 40% in the subordinate courts of all the states by the end of this year.
The aim of this programme is to cut pendency in lower courts by concluding the trial of cases within three years and giving priority to cases concerning deprived classes of society, he said. On Saturday, Moily launched the programme for Gujarat after launching it in Kolkata (for West Bengal) on July 1.
Under the programme, subordinate courts across the country are expected to dispose of 1 crore pending cases by the end of this year. The minister laid emphasis on the need for better infrastructure for courts, gram nyayalayas (courts in remote villages), training of judges, digitisation of courts, and speedy trial.
Talking to reporters later in the day, Moily said the Union government had taken several initiatives, one of which was the mission mode programme. "The aim of the mission is disposal of 40% of pending cases by December 31, 2011, starting from July 1," he said.
Moily, who was himself an ace legal practitioner, has been working hard to make India a hub of international arbitration. He told reporters that there are some obstacles that have to be overcome before this becomes possible.
"However, after two or three meetings with national legal consultants, we will bring a bill for that and set up a national-level arbitration centre in Delhi. We will also encourage such centres in other metropolitan cities," Moily said.
The Union minister also had words of praise for chief minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at the Mission Mode programme's inauguration function, he said he was impressed by the e-library project launched by Modi for lawyers and e-court in Ahmedabad.
"I'm very happy that Narendra Modi has launched an e-library in the state. With the library set go online from August 15, legal information will now be just a click away for lawyers. They will now have access to casebooks, legal material and lectures of eminent jurists," Moily said.
Chief justice of the Gujarat high court SJ Mukhopadhya, Gujarat law minister Dilip Sanghani, minister of state for law Pradipsinh Jadeja, high court judges and senior judges of the state judiciary were present at the function.
Asking the state government to cooperate with the Centre in expediting judiciary-related matters, he said the Centre had decided to provide certain plans 70 percent aid. The state should provide the rest 30 percent, Moily said.
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