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Assess judicial impact of new laws: task force

J. Venkatesan

Attach a financial memorandum to each Bill
Set up judicial impact offices in Delhi, States

New Delhi: Considering the huge backlog of cases in courts, a Task Force, set up at the instance of the Supreme Court, has recommended that a judicial impact assessment (JIA) be done whenever a law is introduced in Parliament or the State legislatures.

Report to Bhardwaj

The Task Force, under the chairmanship of Justice M. Jagannadha Rao, former Law Commission Chairman, presented its report to Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj here on Wednesday. The Centre will submit it to the apex court, hearing the Salem Bar Association case in which the Task Force was constituted.

Justice Rao said a financial memorandum must be attached to each Bill, giving an estimate of budgetary requirement of not only other staff but also for meeting the expenses of additional cases that might arise out its passage in the legislature. Such a system had been followed in the United States for over two decades.

The report said: “The budget must mention the number of cases likely to be generated by the new Act, how many courts and how many judges are necessary. JIA must be made on a scientific basis to assess the extra case-load which any new Bill or legislation may add to the burden of courts, and the expenditure required for adjudication of such cases must be estimated by the government and adequate budgetary provision made therefor.”

The task force suggested the setting up of judicial impact offices in Delhi and in States for the assessment by involving social scientists, statisticians and legal experts.

Blame for arrears

Justice Rao said: “Every Central Ministry that sponsors a Bill should fund the creation of new courts to handle cases that may be filed after it becomes law. There is no point in blaming the judiciary for case arrears, the blame must also lie with other departments that help it.” Over 25 lakh cases were filed after an amendment to Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act and no new court was set up to handle the cases.

He said “2.5 crore cases are still pending in lower courts despite their disposing of 1.5 crore cases annually. The backlog does not get wiped out because fresh cases, almost equal to the number disposed of, get filed in courts every year.”

Number of judges

Justice Rao said: “We have 13 judges per million population and we need five times the present strength of about 14,000 judges. The Planning Commission and the Finance Commission must, in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, allocate sufficient funds for judicial administration.”

The State governments “must likewise make adequate financial provision for meeting the expenditure of courts, at the stage of the Bills, for implementation of the laws to be made by the legislature with respect to subjects in the State List and the Concurrent List [in the Constitution].”

Justice Rao said the credit for taking up the study should go entirely to Law Secretary T.K. Viswanathan following an article written by him in The Hindu in 2002 under the title “Judicial Arrears — Thinking outside the Box.”

The other members of the Task Force are Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon, former Director of the National Judicial Academy (NJC), Bhopal; Prof. Mohan Gopal, Director NJC; T.C.A. Anant, Member-Secretary of the Indian Council of Social Science Research; and Ramesh Abhishek, Joint Secretary, Department of Justice.

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