Prasad sets reform agenda for new law minister Gowda

The reform agenda for new law minister law minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who took charge on Monday, has apparently been set by his predecessor and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Updated on: Nov 10, 2014, 21:52:04 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi:

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The reform agenda for new law minister law minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who took charge on Monday, has apparently been set by his predecessor and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

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The law ministry has initiated several steps including set up a national judicial grid --- one stop portal to check status of cases filed anywhere in the country, increasing the posts of high court judges and approving money for construction modern district courts.

The grid --- a convergence of law and information technology ministries --- will start with Supreme Court and High Courts and subsequently district courts would be integrated in the national information gateway. Ministry officials said integration will not be difficult as the Supreme Court and all High Courts are fully computerised and they update all judicial information on their websites regularly.

Prasad had also initiated the process to get the Supreme Court order on fast track trial of pending criminal cases against political leaders. He has written to all chief justices of high courts to put these cases of high speed. Ministry officials said that some of these cases have already been disposed off but does not have data on the number.

Three states --- Goa, Rajasthan and Tripura --- have also given consent to the Constitutional Amendment Bill to set up National Judicial Commission approved in the last Parliament session. The ministry expects that the requisite approval from half of the states to enact the law would happen by end of this year. Certain Constitutional Amendment Bills needs approval of atleast half of the legislative assemblies in the country.

And one of the first jobs of the commission will be to appoint judges in higher judiciary --- Supreme Court and High Court. The ministry has already decided to increase the number of posts from existing 900 to over 1,100. “The commission will decide on these appointments including the vacant posts in the higher judiciary,” a government functionary said.

On reducing the pendency of cases in lower judiciary the ministry has already approved funds for constructing over 200 modern courts across India. He has also asked the state high courts to identify talents young advocates who could be appointed in the lower judiciary to fill up a large number of vacant posts.

Gowda outlined similar priorities while taking and said that he would try to reduce pendency of cases. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” he said with another union minister from Karnataka Ananth Kumar sitting beside him in Shastri Bhawan, about 100 meters away his office as Railway Minister in Rail Bhawan opposite Parliament.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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