Department of Justice
National Mission for Justice
Delivery
and Legal Reforms
Sectoral Innovation Council Meeting
March 13, 2014
Goals of the National Mission
 Increasing access to justice by reducing
delays and arrears
 Enhancing accountability through structural
changes and by setting performance
standards and improving capacities
2
Five Strategic Initiatives
• Policy and Legislative changes
• Re-engineering Procedures & Alternative Methods of
Dispute Resolution
• Focus on Human Resource Development
• Leveraging ICT for better Justice Delivery
• Development of Infrastructure facilities for the
Subordinate Judiciary
3
Legislative Changes
For structural reforms in judiciary following
legislative proposals are before Parliament:
• Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill
•Judicial Appointments Commission Bill
• Bill to raise the retirement age of High Court
Judges
Policy and Legislative Changes to reduce
pendency in areas prone to excessive litigation
 Amendment in N.I. Act
 Recommendation of the Inter-ministerial Group finalized
⁻ Introduction of ADR
⁻ Codification of Summary Procedure
⁻ Encouragement of payment through e-mode
 Motor Vehicle Act
 Administrative and Policy recourse for payment of challans
without taking recourse to litigation
 Alternative mechanism of victim compensation in motor
accident claims
 Electricity Act
 Settlement of Disputes at pre-litigation stage in LokAdalats
5
Policy Initiatives
State Litigation Policy
 Litigation Policy - Notified by all States
 Transform Government into efficient and responsible





litigant
Setup Empowered Committee to weed out ineffective
and infructuous cases
Identification of litigation prone areas for taking
appropriate measures to resolve issues.
Citizen Charter – time bound delivery of public services
Robust Grievance Redressal mechanism
Arbitration clause in Government contracts
6
Re-engineering of Court Process
Court Management System (NCMS)
Constituted by the Supreme Court in consultation with DOJ
in May 2012
 Sub-Committees to streamline the Court Processes and
Case Rules, Court Development Plan, National
Framework for Court Excellence, Human Resource
Development Strategy.
 Reports of the sub-committees under consideration of the
Supreme Court.
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Re-engineering of Court Process: Process
Service
 CPC was amended to provide service through additional modes
i.e. speed post/fax/courier/e-mail/SMS- emphasis on
implementation

High Court Rules being amended
 Framing of standardised processes for effective delivery of
summons
 Registration of e-mail addresses and mobile phones for process
service
 Recommendation made for improving process service
 Integration of Aadhar cards or electoral cards with a database to be
used for process service.
 Hand-held devices or mobile phones with GPS can be used to tag
the delivery location for making service of summons more effective
and transparent.
Alternative Methods of Dispute Resolution
• Review of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act by Law
Commission of India
• ADR Centres/Lok Adalats
 600 ADR Centres sanctioned under TFC grant
 223 ADR Centres have been established
 7,45,768 cases have been disposed of in ADR centres
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Alternative Methods of Dispute
Resolution (Contd.)
National Mega Lok Adalats

First Mega Lok Adalat involving cases from Supreme
Court to Taluka Level Courts was held on November 23,
2013.

71,78,178 cases have been disposed of by the Mega Lok
Adalat - (including 20,92,650 Pre-litigation cases).

Next National Mega Lok Adalat has been notified to be
held on April 12th, 2014.
Focus on Human Resource Development
 18000 posts of Judicial Officers / Judges in District &
Subordinate Courts
 1800 additional posts of Judicial Officers being created
 In principle decision taken to increase the judge
strength by 25% in High Courts
 1549 vacancies in Subordinate Courts filled up under
Pendency Reduction Drive
 Capacity building of State Judicial Academies through
action research on judicial reform
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Development of Infrastructure Facilities
for Subordinate Judiciary
 Centrally Sponsored Scheme
 Amount released to the State Governments:
 2011-12: Rs. 595 Cr
 2012-13: Rs. 708 Cr
 2013-14(Till date): Rs. 851 Cr
 Total Central expenditure on the scheme Rs. 3400 crore
 Court Complexes Constructed/Upgraded- over 500
 Residential Buildings Constructed- over 300
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Leveraging ICT for Better Justice Delivery
• eCourts Mission Mode Project
 13,277 courts have been computerised by 31st January, 2014.
•
Online Services available to citizens, lawyers, litigants:
 Cause list, Case Status, Orders/ Judgments
 Video Conference Pilot Project underway
•
National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)
 Objectives
o Judicial Management Monitoring; Online Backup of Case Status and to
Provide Case Status access to stakeholders
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Model Courts
 The concept of Model Court being developed
on the following five principles:
 Citizen Friendly services and lay-out
 Efficiency in terms of time and cost
 Delivery of fair, just and high quality judgements
 Reasonable certainty of commencement and
conclusion of proceedings
 Efficient Mechanism for prompt and responsive
redressal of citizens grievances
Important Issues under
Consideration/Implementation of the National
Mission
 Audio-Video Recording of Court Proceedings
 Review of Legal Framework for Promoting ADR
 Court Development Plan
 Legal Education Reforms
 Bar Reforms
 Emphasis on Training for Expeditious Disposal of Cases
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Thank You