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ShareNew Delhi: With more than 3.11 crore cases pending across the country, law minister Veerappa Moily has been calling for "revolutionary steps" to rid the judicial system of slow redressal. In an interview to Vineeta Pandey, Moily discusses his plans for speedy justice delivery and building a judiciary in keeping with the times.
A major complaint against the judicial system has been tardy justice delivery. You have been emphasising on reforms. How would you deliver?
Nearly 2.71 crore of the 3.11 crore pending cases can be attributed to subordinate courts. We are working towards bringing down pendency, first, by instituting specialised courts. The earlier UPA government had taken the first step by bringing the Gram Nyayalaya Act. The nyayalayas will be open from October and by March we plan to set up 200 such courts. This number should go up to 5,000 in three years. These courts, which will deal with cases at a level below the subordinate courts but in the same capacity, will help unburden civil courts.Our target is to wind up a case within six months of its filing. We will also try to popularise plea bargaining.
Are you planning to have courts look into specific kinds cases?
Yes, we have proposed setting up of courts that look into specific cases, but only in areas occupying a chunk of pending cases. For instance, we'll establish fast track courts to hear cheque bouncing cases since there are 25 lakh of them now. Then, 71 special CBI courts have been sanctioned to fast track cases pending with the agency. The commercial courts bill is on the anvil. This will make it possible for some courts to only hear cases with high commercial value. .
The govt is a major litigant. Do you feel disputes of ministries, public sector enterprises and government institutions can go through an alternative disposal mechanism?
We are introducing a National Litigation Policy which would also lay emphasis on regulating cases filed by ministries, government institutions and public sector enterprises. We have sought information from all ministries regarding litigations filed by them or against them. Wherever feasible, we want the litigations to be brought under the Alternate Dispute Redressal (ADR) mechanism. All CMs have also been asked to follow this in their states.
There's not a single woman judge in the Supreme Court. Can the skewed representation be corrected?
That's true. Even high courts have very few women judges. Competent women lawyers need to be scouted.
How do you plan to revitalise the judiciary in view of the changing technology?
The criminal justice system needs to be reformed. The last amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code made registration of FIRs mandatory in all cases. Once an FIR is registered, the case has to be challaned in court. And the FIR can only be cancelled by the court, which adds to their burden. In certain cases, undertrials and outstation witnesses can depose through video conferencing. The use of Information and Communication Technology portals also needs to be propagated.
Do you feel that the cyber law, in its current form, is competent?
Cyber crime is a dynamic field and we need to appraise our law to keep pace with changing technology. We will amend the law to make it more comprehensive.
