First meeting of the Advisory Council of the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms

Salman Khurshid, Minister of Law and Justice, here today chaired the first meeting of the Advisory Council meeting of the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms.  Mullappally Ramachandran, Minister of State for Home Affairs; Ali Mohd. Sagar, Minister of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs, Jammu & Kashmir; Shri G. E. Vahanvati, Attorney General of India and most of the other members of the 15- member Council were present in the meeting.

Addressing the Council,  Khurshid said that the National Mission will ensure a well coordinated response of the Executive and the Judiciary for speeding up delivery of justice in the Country and to reduce the delay in the disposal of cases by the courts. “ This”, he said “ would reinforce faith of the people in the rule of law and secure a social order in which the legal system of the nation promotes justice and ensures that opportunity for securing justice is not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities.” The Mission, spanning 5 years from 2011 to 2016, will focus on two major goals as envisaged in the Vision Document, namely:

i) Increasing access to justice by reducing delays and arrears in the system; and

ii) Enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards and capacities.

Secretary, Department of Justice,  Neela Gangadharan, who is the Convenor and the Mission Leader, gave an overview presentation on the National Mission to Council.

The National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms was approved by the Union Cabinet on 23rd June this year. The broad areas covered by the National Mission are policy and legislative changes, re-engineering of procedures, human resource development, leveraging ICT and improve physical infrastructure of subordinate courts. Infrastructure development for the subordinate judiciary is the major thrust area of the National Mission. Inadequacy of infrastructure facilities in District and Subordinate courts has remained a major bottleneck in the judicial system largely contributing to the accumulation of arrears. In order to augment the resources of the State Governments for development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary the Central Government outflow would be around Rs. 5,500 crore over five years of the National Mission.