LAW AND JUSTICE

---

The Government has taken several milestone steps to improve the lot of people during the first three years since October, 1999 through adjustment of laws, enactment of new laws intended to simplify laws relating to justice delivery system under a time bound programme, making the institution of Lok Adalats permanent to bring in it public utilities so as to provide time bound and cost effective justice to the people at the pre-litigative and otherwise stage of disputes resolution at the cutting edge of public administration, effecting personal law reforms through amendments in various marriage and other laws by making it mandatory for the courts to provide interim judgements within 60 days in the matter of alimony, maintenance and compensation to women in distress in divorce suits, maintenance of children and old parents, bringing the junior lawyers and advocates in general within the net of social security through Advocates Welfare Fund, adjusting registration, transfer of property and stamp laws to prevent malpractices in registration of properties, evolving transparency through amendments in election laws and various amendments effected in the Companies Act to evolve a productive, efficient and competitive corporate sector in tune with the emerging globalization of Indian economy and the best global practices, to protect interest of investors by increasing accountability of corporate sector and introducing the system of corporate governance.

The period witnessed hectic legislative activity. A total of 189 Central Acts, as drafted by the Legislative Department, were enacted by Parliament, 22 Ordinances promulgated, 15 Constitutional Orders, 5 Presidential Regulations and 9,600 statutory rules and notifications issued. Besides, seven Constitution Amendment Acts from 79^th to the Eighty-fifth Amendments were effected.

The Legislative Department also made available all the Central Acts of All India application on Internet/NICNET on its website http://Indiacode.nic.in. In addition, CD ROMs of the Constitution of India and Election Laws were released.

Obsolete Laws Repealed

A large number of obsolete laws have been repealed:

• By the Repealing and Amending Act, 2001, a total of 305 Acts have been wholly repealed while 52 Acts partially repealed and amended.
• Through this process of scavenging the statute book, all the 357 amending Acts enforced between 1984 and 1999 were reviewed.

Free Legal Aid

From October 1999 to March 2002, about 16.74 lakh persons received free legal aid and advice in law courts. During the same period, 86,300 Lok Adalats were held and 47.71 lakh cases settled including, 2,61,550 motor accident cases wherein compensation amounting to Rs. 1446.82 crore was ordered to be paid by the parties involved

JUDICIAL REFORMS

New Initiatives

The scheme of setting up Fast Track Courts was started on the initiatives of the Department of Justice from funds allocated by the Eleventh Finance Commission.

Initiative for the introduction of Information Technology in courts were taken by earmarking a portion of Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) funds exclusively for the use of IT.

Plans were prepared for the Pilot Project of Computerization of courts in the four major metros—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to serve as a model for the use of Information Technology in courts.

FAST TRACK COURTS

The Fast Track Courts have been set up to clear the backlog of pending cases in various session courts of the country. The actions initiated so far include:

• A total of 1,734 Fast Track Courts fully funded by the Centre at Sessions Court level throughout the country to be set up at a cost of Rs 502.90 crore.
• All the Fast Track Courts to be functional by December 31, 2002.
• So far 1,150 Fast Track Courts have been set up.
• These courts have disposed of 60,000 cases since April 1, 2001 out of 150,043 cases transferred to them.
• All the under-trial cases have been given priority for disposal.
• All Sessions cases pending for two years or more have been given priority for disposal.
• At present there are about two lakh under trials and on their maintenance the State governments are spending about Rs. 461 crore annually at the rate of Rs. 55 per day per person in jail.
• The Supreme Court has approved the Constitutional validity of Fast Track Courts and directed the Chief Justices of High Courts and the Chief Ministers of States to fill all the vacancies of presiding judges of Fast Track Courts within three months from May 6, 2002 in Brij Mohan Lal Vs Union of India case.

 

 

 

Computerisation of Courts

Execution of pilot project of computerisation and networking of courts in four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai has started. The project further envisages computerisation of subordinate courts in State Capitals in the second phase.

High Courts / High Court Benches

• After the reorganisation of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, three High Courts were established in the newly created States of Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand and they have started functioning from November 1, 9 and 15, 2000, respectively. A plan has also been drawn for building/extension in these newly created High Courts and other High Courts.
• A Bench of Guwahati High Court has been set up at Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh on August 12, 2000. A Bench of Madras High Court at Madurai is proposed to be set up as soon as the infrastructural facilities are developed to the satisfaction of the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. This would involve a Parliamentary legislation. A Bench of the Calcutta High Court at Jalpaiguri is also contemplated subject to development of infrastructural facilities.

Filling up Vacancies of Judges

Action plan for filling up all the 2,216 vacant posts of judges and magistrates in district/subordinate courts has been drawn up for the year 2002-2003 as per the directions of the Supreme Court in Judges Case in March, 2002.

• With filling of all the 2,216 vacancies of judges in the subordinate courts and all the 1,734 Fast Track Courts becoming fully functional during 2002-2003, a total of 3,950 additional courts will get added to the present number of 12,737 courts to make 32 per cent more additional courts.
• There are 21 High Courts in the country with the approved strength of 647 judges. As on date, there are 141 vacancies in the High Courts.
• In view of the Prime Minister’s direction to fill up vacancies in the High Courts expeditiously, the Chief Justices of the High Courts were advised to speed up their recommendations for filling up the vacant posts.
• The Government has been urging upon the Chief Justices of the High Courts to make recommendations for filling up vacancies in the High Courts. The Ministry has received proposals for filling up 65 vacancies in the High Courts which are under examination.

Family Courts

Action plan has been worked out for 34 new Family Courts and allocation of funds for setting up of more Family Courts on 50:50 cost sharing basis as and when demanded by States. Already 97 such Family Courts are functioning in different States. The Centre has urged the State governments to set up Family Courts in each district on cost sharing basis to resolve family and matrimonial disputes.

LEGAL REFORMS

Civil Procedure Code

Not only public but also the Government was conscious about the problem of delay in disposal of cases. This led to the amendments in the Code of Civil Procedure. The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 1999 and the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2002, came into being with the aim of curtailing delays and lessening the lengthy procedure to compress the civil cases into one year timeframe for final disposal. The Act:

• Prohibits further appeal in certain cases and prevents second appeal in certain other cases.
• Allows servicing of summons through couriers and other means of modern communication systems.
• Restricts pleading.
• Casts certain obligations on plaintiff.
• Provides for written statement by the defendant.
• Provides for recording of evidence by commissioners.
• Restricts adjournments to three times only.
• Binds judges to deliver judgement within 30 days ordinarily after the judgement is reserved.

Compulsory pre-litigative Mechanism in Lok Adalats

The Alternative Dispute Resolution System is one of the important means to reduce the burden on the justice delivery system by encouraging reconciliation and arbitration.

The system of Lok Adalat is an innovative concept which can provide an effective mechanism for resolving disputes in a spirit of conciliation outside the court. However, the efficacy of the system remained low because in case of failure to reach a settlement, the parties were allowed to invoke the jurisdiction of the courts. It is in this context that the amendments have been brought about to provide a compulsory pre-litigation in respect of a certain class of cases involving the State as one of the parties through the institution of Lok Adalats. The special features of the Legal Services Authorities (Amendment) Act, 2002, are:

• It seeks to provide compulsory pre-litigative mechanism for conciliation and settlement of cases relating to public utility services.
• The public utility services like transport of passengers or goods by air, road or water, postal, telegraph or telephonic service, supply of power and water to the public, public conservancy or sanitation, hospitals and insurance have been brought within the purview of the Permanent Lok Adalats.
• After an application is filed by any party before the Lok Adalat for settlement, no party shall invoke jurisdiction of any court or tribunal.
• Award made by the Lok Adalats shall be final, binding and shall not be questioned in any original suit, application or adjudication proceedings.
• The award shall be deemed to be a decree of civil court.
• Monetary jurisdiction of permanent Lok Adalats fixed at Rs. 10 lakh with power conferred on the Government to revise it from time to time.
• Permanent Lok Adalat will comprise a Chairperson with judicial experience and two other persons having adequate experience in public utility services.

Notaries Rules

The Notaries Rules have been amended to relax the eligibility norms for women and persons belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes who would now be eligible with 7 years experience as against 10 years for general category. The measures include:

• Revised rate of fee for doing notarial acts prescribed under rule 10 of the Notaries Rules, 1956.
• Fixed quota of notaries to be appointed by the State governments and Central Government in each State and Union Territory.

ATFE Starts Functioning

With the repealing of the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act, 1973 and its replacement by the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, Foreign Exchange Appellate Board (FERA Board) was dismantled with effect from June 1, 2000 and in place Appellate Tribunal for Foreign Exchange set up. The Tribunal has since become fully functional.

ITAT New Benches Created

• With the 15 newly created additional Benches of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), number of Benches has gone up from 38 to 53 Benches.
• The pendency of cases, though still very high, has come down from 2,62,652 in 1999-2000 to 2,06,043 in March, 2002. Pendency includes 33,951 cases filed in 2000-2001 and 30,858 cases filed during 2001-2002.
• Pendency of cases per Bench has reduced from 5,000 cases in 2001 to 4,000 cases per Bench in March 2002.

 

 

LEGAL REFORMS IN SOCIAL SECTOR

The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2002

The applicant after filing application in a court under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 had to wait for several years for getting relief from the court. Therefore, the need was felt for providing interim maintenance allowance to the aggrieved person under Section 125 of the Cr. PC. Accordingly, the Act has been amended. The Act seeks:

• To bind the courts that Magistrate may order payment of interim maintenance allowance and such expenses of the proceedings to the aggrieved person, wife, children and parents, within 60 days from service of notice during the pendency of divorce or maintenance suits.
• It also seeks to remove the ceiling on maintenance allowance that has been Rs. 500 since 1955.
• The quantum of maintenance to be decided by court looking into the income and assets of the party.
• It is intended to bring a considerable relief to women, children and old parents in distress, who had earlier to wait for years for interim relief.
• Seeks to provide litigation cost in each case.

Marriage Laws Amendment

Reforms in the Personal laws too attracted the attention of the Government which required changes with the changing times. The Special Marriage Act, 1954, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 have been amended by the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 2001.

• The Act provides for disposal of application for alimony or maintenance and education for children, during the pendency of cases within 60 days from the date of service of notice on the respondent.
• It also seeks to provide in each case of maintenance litigation expenses as well.
• The Act intends to bring succor to women in distress, who had earlier to wait for several years to receive maintenance.
• By the Indian Divorce (Amendment) Act, 2001, the Indian Divorce Act, 1869 has been amended. The amendments were made after consultations with the leaders of prominent churches in India and Members of Parliament belonging to Christian community, after taking into account Law Commission’s Report and Judgements of Supreme Court and various High Courts. The Act broadly provides for:
• Bringing gender equality between Christian spouses in the matters of grounds of divorce.
• Doing away with the procedural delays in obtaining divorce.
• The grounds of dissolution of marriage have further been winded for Christian spouses on the line of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954.
• Mutual consent as a ground for divorce has been incorporated.
• Certain provisions omitted to simplify the procedure and obviate delay and consequential hardships to estranged couples by doing away with the requirement of confirmation.
• Remarriage simplified.

Amendment to Indian Succession Act

The Indian Succession Act, 1925 was aimed at consolidating the Indian law relating to testamentary and intestate succession.

The Indian Succession (Amendment) Act, 2002 entitles Christian widow to succeed to her distributive share in the property of her deceased husband notwithstanding any contract to the contrary. This also puts an end to discrimination against Christian widow.

Advocates Welfare Fund Act, 2001

The need was felt for a Central legislation for constitution of Advocates Welfare Fund. Thus the Advocates Welfare Fund Act, 2001 has been enacted. The Delhi Bar Council has become the first in the country to launch the Welfare Fund under this Act. The Fund proposes:

• To provide social security in the form of financial assistance to junior lawyers and welfare scheme for indigent or disabled advocates.
• To provide ex-gratia grant to the family members in case of death of a member and for medical and education facilities for the members and their dependents.
• To provide money for purchase of books and for common facilities for advocates.
• The fund to be composed of contributions by State Bar Councils, voluntary donations or contributions by the Bar Council of India, advocates associations, individuals, grants made by State or Centre and the money collected from sales of Advocates Welfare Fund Stamps.
• The income accrued to the Fund is exempted from income-tax.

Registration and Other Related (Amendment) Act, 2000

The Act seeks to amend the Registration Act, 1908, the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and the India Stamp Act, 1899.

• The Act seeks to make affixing of the photographs and fingerprints on the documents compulsory at the time of property registration.
• It provides for computerization of registration of records by the State Governments.
• It also seeks to avert a lot of mischief and malpractices in the enforcement of these laws.

Review of Working of Constitution

The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution which was appointed by the Government on February 22, 2000 under the Chairmanship of Shri Justice M.N. Venkatachalaiah, a retired Chief Justice of India, in keeping with the National Agenda of Governance of the NDA Government, submitted its report to the Government in March 31, 2002. The Commission has suggested enlargement of Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and amendments in other provisions to accelerate socio-economic development of the people without tampering with the basic structure of the Constitution. The Report is under active consideration of the Government. Work has already been initiated by calling an all party meeting for setting up of a National Judicial Commission. Besides, report of the Commission has been forwarded to Ministries/Departments and State governments to implement its recommendations.

ELECTORAL REFORMS

The Government has taken various steps to bring about electoral reforms. The steps taken are:

• Freeze in the increase of the total number of the Parliamentary (Lok Sabha) and State legislative Assembly Constituencies upto the year 2026. This was achieved by the Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Act, 2001.
• The freeze in the increase of the total number of Parliamentary and State Legislative Assembly constituencies has been taken as a motivational measure to States to pursue fearlessly the agenda for population stabilisation.

The Delimitation Act, 2002

• The Delimitation Act, 2002 has been enacted to constitute a Delimitation Commission to give effect to the Constitution (84^th Amendment) Act, 2001.
• The main task of the Commission is to readjust the division of territorial constituencies of the seats in the House of the People allocated to each State and to readjust the division of territorial constituencies of the total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of each State on the basis of 1971 census.
• The seats revised for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to be refixed on the basis of census of 1991.

A Delimitation Commission, headed by Shri Justice Kuldeep Singh, a retired judge of the Supreme Court with the Election Commissioner Shri B.B. Tondon and Election Commissioner of the State concerned as Members of the Commission has been constituted. The Commission will finish its tasks within two years and before the next general elections to the Lok Sabha in 2004.

The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2001

• This Bill now before the Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, seeks to make provisions for doing away with the requirement of residence in a State or Union Territory for contesting elections to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) from the State or Union Territory.
• The Bill also provides for introduction of the system of open ballot instead of secret ballot for elections to the Rajya Sabha.
• This is intended to evolve transparency and openness in the elections to the Rajya Sabha.
• The Bill seeks to do away with secret ballot in order to stop malpractices inherent in the existing system.

State Funding of Elections

The Elections and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2002, seeks to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951 for State funding to the political parties.

• It intends to eliminate the influence of money power and black money in elections and raising of funds in the name of elections by the parties and their leaders.
• It seeks to allow companies, other than Government companies defined under the Companies Act, 1956, to make donations to political parties.
• It also permits donations by any person.
• It prohibits donations from foreign sources within the meaning of the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act, 1976.
• It also prohibits donation from the Government company, local authority and every artificial juridical person wholly or partially funded by the Government.
• It seeks to raise limit of voluntary contributions in cash taken by a political party from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000 under Section 13A of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• It seeks to retain the existing provision on donation by a company under Section 293 of the Companies Act, 1956 in any financial year, any amount not exceeding Rs. 50,000 or 5 per cent of its average net profits during the three preceding financial years.
• It provides for rebate to companies in income-tax for the amount contributed directly or indirectly to a political party or for political purpose. Similar tax relief is allowed to individuals, Hindu Undivided Families and certain other entities or juridical persons.
• It enjoins treasurers of political parties to submit reports of donations to the Election Commission. Failure to do so will render political parties ineligible for tax relief under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• It requires accounts of donations to be audited by an auditor approved by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India once in a financial year to determine admissible expenditure.
• Such accounts as audited will be laid on the Table of booth the Houses of Parliament.
• The Election Commission will allocated broadcast timings on Electronic media and Cable TV channels to political parties on the basis of their past performance, which shall be binding.
• It provides for free supply of copies of electoral rolls and identity slips of electors to the candidates and such other materials as may be prescribed.
• Expenditure incurred by the leaders of political parties on general party campaign on account of travel by air or otherwise will not form part of the expenditure in connection with elections incurred or authorized by candidates of political parties or their election agents.
• Respective laws relating to cable operators and other service providers in the private sector are proposed to be amended to make Code of Conduct to be observed by them as part of the licencing conditions.

Electronic Voting Machines

The Government has approved purchase of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) under a perspective plan by the end of financial year 2003-2004 to enable the Election Commission of India to have a total of 10 lakh EVMs till then.

• At present, the Election Commission has 2,83,000 EVMs.
• Its projected target is to procure upto 10 lakh EVMs including the existing ones. This also includes 25 per cent reserves.
• The procurement of targeted EVMs will enable the Election Commission to conduct elections hassle-free, check electoral malpractices, effect economy in expenditure and announce results quickly.

In addition, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 1999, providing for proxy voting for members of Armed Forces is before Parliament.

The Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance was promulgated on August 24, 2002 to get over the difficulties created by the Supreme Court judgement of May 2, 2002 and to nullify the consequential orders of June 28, 2002 issued by the Election Commission to implement that judgement.

Amendments in nomination forms 2 A and 2E appended to the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 were notified on September 3, 2002, requiring contestant to the Union Legislature or State Legislature to furnish information of his conviction, if any, under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

Under the Ordinance, a candidate will be requested to furnish information of his being accused of any offence punishable for two years or more.

Besides, candidates furnishing false information before the Returning Officer shall be liable for similar consequences for giving false or concealing information.

An elected candidate will declare his assets and liabilities before the Presiding Officer of the House concerned.

A Bill to replace the Ordinance would be introduced in the Winter Session of Parliament-2002.

After these electoral reform laws are enacted, there would be a considerable improvement in electoral system in the form of transparency and reduction of corrupt practices in the electoral system to make our polity a meaningful one at the very grass-roots of Indian democracy. National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution has made several recommendations to this effect, which are under active consideration of the Government.

Reservation for Women in Legislatures

The Constitution (Eighty-fifth Amendment) Bill, 1999, seeking to provide as nearly as possible one-third of the seats for women in the House of the People and Legislative Assemblies of States, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 23, 1999. The Bill was listed for consideration and passing in that House on December 21 and 22, 2000 during Winter Session but could not be considered in the absence of consensus among the political parties. The issue, though not included in agenda, was also mentioned in the meeting of all parties on electoral reforms held on September 13, 2001, there was not much discussion on the subject. The Bill could not be considered so far due to lack of consensus among political parties on various provisions of the Bill.

Agreements on Mutual Legal Assistance

Agreement between the Republic of India and the United Arab Emirates on judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters for the services of judgements and arbitration awards, signed on October 25, 1999, was ratified on May 29, 2000.

Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Republic of India on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations concerning civil and commercial matters was signed on October 3, 2000.

Treaty between the Republic of India and Mongolia on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations, signed on January 3, 2001.

A Protocol on cooperation in justice between the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Turkey and the Indian Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs was signed on April 10, 2002 by the Turkish Justice Minister and the Indian Law Minister.

 

*****