The Hindu : Karnataka News : Roadmap for judicial reforms this month

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Karnataka

Roadmap for judicial reforms this month

Special Correspondent

M. Veerappa Moily

CHICKABALLAPUR: Union Minister for Law and Justice M. Veerappa Moily on Saturday said the roadmap for judicial reforms in the country would be ready by the end of August.

To give shape to the judicial reforms, a national consultative meet of judges, jurists and lawyers would be held in New Delhi on August 29 and 30, Mr. Moily said while addressing the members of Chickaballapur Advocates’ Association here.

Prior to the consultative meet, a meeting of Chief Justices of all the High Courts and Chief Justice of India (CJI) would be held on August 14 and 15 and a meeting of all the Chief Ministers and the CJI on August 16 to discuss the issue, the Minister said.

Mr. Moily said any law should ultimately bring peace to society. However, various laws that had their origin in the Constitution — the conflict resolution document — were themselves creating conflicts and an atmosphere of hate. “We are on the path of reforming these laws,” he said.

He said safeguarding ones independence to get justice was as important as safeguarding the independence of the judiciary and, the same would be kept in mind while bringing in the reforms. The Minister blamed the abysmal conviction rate of 8 per cent in the criminal cases to poor investigations by the police. He said judges were now compelled to search for evidence and even conduct investigations before delivering judgments.

Pending cases

Mr. Moily said 3.5 crore cases were pending before various courts in the country and 38 per cent of them were criminal in nature. Various governments were a party in 58 per cent of the pending cases.

Responding to a suggestion by the advocates’ association, Mr. Moily said that he would consider setting up an academy to improve the skills of lawyers. If the skills of lawyers were improved, it leads to the improvement of the skills of judges, he said.

While making out a case for appointing judges on merit, he said the process should start from the lowest level. Judges of high court and the Supreme Court were also in favour of it, the Minister said.

On learning about the poor infrastructure of courts in Chickaballapur district, Mr. Moily, who is MP for Chickaballapur, said he would discus the matter with the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice and Department of Public Works. “I will set right the things. As the Law Minister, it is question of my honour if courts in my constituency lack basic facilities,” he remarked.

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