Govt to bring in reforms to reduce litigation delays: Moily

H S Rao
London, Jul 10 (PTI) Government plans to usher in
second generation legal reforms that would eliminate
litigation delays sharply in India.
It would also like to put in place a legal regulatory
regime and an oversight mechanism for the smooth functioning
of the judiciary without infringing on the independence of the
institution.
"In the first stage, with a view to fast tracking the
delivery of justice and creating centres of excellence, we
established National Law Schools.
"Now in the second stage, we would like to introduce
the second generation legal reforms. At present litigation in
India involves delay of over 15 years. The Government would
like to reduce this delay to less than 3 years," Indian Law
Minister Veerappa Moily told journalists here.
He said the government would also take measures to
improve the quality of the judiciary by reforming the legal
education system and making the country the most preferred
destination for investors by setting up international
arbitration courts with a mandate to dispose off any
litigation within a year.
Moily said the Commercial Court Bill would soon become
a law, paving the way for speedy disposal of cases through
arbitration. Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) has
passed the Bill and it will go before the Rajya Sabha (Upper
House) now.
The Minister said the amendment of the Arbitration and
Conciliation Act would remove the distractions and make the
legislation more vibrant.
"The Government of India would like to improve quality
of the judiciary through reforming the legal education. We
need to make India the most preferred destination of
investment," Moily said.
Moily, a former chief minister of Karnataka and
Chairman of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission,
said, "any investment above Rs five crore will be decided in
commercial courts within a year."
He said that the Indian government's first priority is
to reform the legal education and upgrade the course contents
in the 933 law colleges across the country.
"There are more than one million lawyers in India. We
intend to restructure the faculty of our law colleges and make
them world class. The second priority for the Government is to
strengthen and widen the centres of excellences and establish
more National Law Schools, at least one each in each of the 28
States," he said. (MORE) PTI