Cabinet assents mission to cut pendency, expedite justice

New Delhi: Determined to bring down the huge pile of cases awaiting justice in different courts of the country, the Cabinet today approved a law ministry proposal to operationalise a mission mode programme for developing infrastructure and bringing accountability to reduce pendency and dispose of an estimated 2.5 crore cases lying in the courts. The law ministry’s proposal to set up a mission directorate under the Department of Justice, which deals with appointment and transfer of members of higher judiciary, is part of its ‘National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms’. [caption id=“attachment_30258” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily. Atul Yadav/PTI”]  [/caption] As part of the proposal, the Ministry plans to share 75 percent of the grants involved in developing the infrastructure in states to bring down spiralling number of cases, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters. For the Northeast region, the Centre will bear 90 percent of the expenses. So far, the Centre used to share 50 percent of the grants. The Centre will bear an estimated expenditure of Rs 5,510 crore for the next five years to achieve the objective by 2016. Besides the directorate, an advisory council and a governing council will be set up to oversee the mplementation of the mission which includes increasing accountability, re-engineering procedures and improving infrastructure of the lower judiciary. The move is part of the ‘vision statement’ adopted by the Conference of Chief Justices and Chief Ministers in October 2009. The statement contained a road map for improving justice delivery and legal reforms and steps to reduce pendency in courts from 15 to three years by 2012. Now the deadline has been extended to 2016. While the programme was operationalised today, it had received in-principle approval of the Union Cabinet in December 2009. PTI