President accords to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013

On February 3, 2013 President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 which provides for, amongst other things, stricter punishment for crimes against women. The Ordinance was to be largely based on the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee.

The Ordinance, passed by the Union Cabinet on February 1, 2013 has accepted some of the recommendations of the three-member Justice Verma Committee. The Committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India, J.S. Verma, was set up after the gang rape of a twenty-three year old student in Delhi. The Committee had submitted its Report on January 23, 2012, less than a month after the Committee had been constituted.

The Ordinance has introduced offences of voyeurism (S.354C), stalking (S.354D), use of force with intent to disrobe (S.354B), and acid attacks (Ss 336A and 336B) as specific offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The punishments for these offences range from  a minimum of a year’s imprisonment (Stalking) to five years imprisonment (for throwing or attempting to throw acid).

The Ordinance has also gone beyond the recommendations of the Committee by introducing the death penalty for a rape that leads to death of the victim or leaves the victim in a vegetative state. The Ordinance has also replaced the word ‘rape’ with ‘sexual assault’ to expand the definition of all types sexual crimes against women.

However, the Ordinance has rejected some of the vital recommendations of the Committee. The recommendations which were ignored include a review of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in cases of violence against women committed by those in the armed forces, the recognition of marital rape as an offence, and a restriction on politicians facing sexual offence charges from contesting elections

The Ordinance comes into effect immediately upon receiving Presidential assent. However, the Ordinance will have to be passed by Parliament within six months otherwise the same shall lapse.

20th Law Commission

Justice D. K. Jain, Judge, Supreme Court of India, will be the Chairman of the Twentieth Law Commission of India. The appointment of Justice Jain will be effective from any day after 24th January 2013 on his retirement from the Supreme Court.    

  

The Twentieth Law Commission was constituted through a Government Order with effect from 1st September, 2012. It has a three-year term ending on 31st August, 2015.  The Terms of Reference of the Twentieth Law Commission include the following:

A.  Review/Repeal of obsolete laws:

i).    Identify laws which are no longer needed or relevant and can be immediately repealed; Ii) Identify laws which are not in harmony with the existing climate of economic liberalization and need change;

iii) Identify laws which otherwise require changes or amendments and to make suggestions for their amendment;

iv) Consider in a wider perspective the suggestions for revision/ amendment given by Expert Groups in various Ministries/Departments with a view to coordinating and harmonizing them;

v) Consider references made to it by Ministries/ Departments in respect of legislation having bearing on the working of more than one Ministry/Department;

vi) Suggest suitable measures for quick redressal of citizens grievances, in the field of law.

B. Law and Poverty:

i)   Examine the Laws which affect the poor and carry out post-audit for socio-economic legislations;

ii)  Take all such measures as may be necessary to harness law and the legal process in the service of the poor.

C. Keep under review the system of judicial administration to ensure that it is responsive to the reasonable demands of the times and in particular to secure: i) Elimination of delays, speedy clearance of arrears and reduction in costs so as to secure quick and economical disposal of cases without affecting the cardinal principle that decision should be just and fair; ii)  Simplification of procedure to reduce and eliminate technicalities and devices for delay so that it operates not as an end in itself but as a means of achieving justice; iii)  Improvement of standards of all concerned with the administration of justice.

D.  Examine the existing laws in the light of Directive Principles of State Policy and to suggest ways of improvement and reform and also to suggest such legislations as might be necessary to implement the Directive Principles and to attain the objectives set out in the Preamble to the Constitution.

E.  Examine the existing laws with a view for promoting gender equality and suggesting amendments thereto.

F.  Revise the Central Acts of general importance so as to simplify them and to remove anomalies, ambiguities and inequities.

G. Recommend to the Government measure for making the statute book up-to-date by repealing obsolete laws and enactments or parts thereof which have outlived their utility.

H. Consider and to convey to the Government its views on any subject relating to law and judicial administration that may be specifically referred to it by the Government through Ministry of Law and Justice.

Making the Judicial System ‘Five Plus Free’

        As pendency of cases in various courts continued to be a major concern of the Ministry of Law & Justice, the focus of pendency reduction drive this year has been to make our judicial system ‘five plus’ free i.e. to dispose of cases that are more than five years old. Simultaneously, emphasis was laid on increasing the number of judges in subordinate judiciary by filling the existing vacancies and creating additional posts so that disposal of cases is expedited by setting up of additional courts.

The year 2012 proved to be a milestone year for the Ministry of Law & Justice as probably for the first time, as per information received from the High Courts, the net pendency in all courts was reduced by over 6 lakh cases.  Out of them about 1.36 lakh cases were of the targeted groups such as senior citizens, disabled, minors and marginalized sections of society. This was the result of a pendency reduction drive undertaken in the second half of 2011 in a campaign mode approach for clearing long pending cases and cases relating to marginalized sections of the society in High Courts and Subordinate Courts under their jurisdiction. Encouraged by that success, another similar drive was launched during 2012 as well: from July to December 2012.  The focus of pendency reduction drive this year is to make our judicial system ‘five plus free’.

On the recommendations of 13th Finance Commission, the Government has sanctioned Rs. 5000 crore as grants to the States for 5 years between 2010-15 for undertaking various initiatives  to increase access to justice. An amount of Rs. 595 crore was released as central assistance to States / UTs for infrastructure development of subordinate judiciary during 2011-12.  Out of budget of Rs 660 crore in the current financial year, Rs. 557 crore has been released to States / UTs till 30th November, 2012.

National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms:

Besides, the Government has set up a National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms with the twin objectives of increasing access by reducing delays and arrears in the system and enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards and capacities.  The Mission has been pursuing a coordinated approach for phased liquidation of arrears and pendency in judicial administration which, inter alia, involves better infrastructure for courts including computerisation, increase in strength of subordinate judiciary, policy and legislative measures in the areas prone to excessive litigation, re-engineering of court procedure for quick disposal of cases and emphasis on human resource development.  The National Mission has a time frame of five years (2011-16) to pursue them.

The Mission has taken several steps in the strategic areas towards fulfilment of its objectives.  An Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) has been constituted to suggest necessary amendments to the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 along with other policy and administrative measures to check increasing litigation relating to cheque bounce cases.  For the re-engineering of court procedures and court processes for early disposal of cases, a National Court Management System has been notified by the Supreme Court for addressing the issues of case management, court management, setting measurable standards for performance of the courts and the National System of Judicial Statistics in the country.

Infrastructure development for the subordinate judiciary is a major thrust area for the National Mission.  With a view to enhancing the resources of the State Governments, the Government has increased the central share by revising the funding pattern from 50:50 to 75:25 (for States other than North Eastern States) under modified Centrally Sponsored Scheme for development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary.  The funding pattern for North-Eastern States has been kept as 90:10.

e-Courts Mission Mode Project:

In order to improve the justice delivery system, the Government is implementing the e-Courts project in a mission mode, since 2007. The project envisages computerisation of 14,249 district and subordinate courts as well up gradation of the information and communication technology infrastructure of the Supreme Court and the High Courts in the country, so that citizen centric eServices can be initiated to make justice delivery more affordable and transparent.  A total of 11,165 district & subordinate courts have already been computerised under the on-going project; another 3,084 district and subordinate courts would be computerized in the next 15 months. Once computerised, the courts are envisaged to provide a host of eServices to litigants and public at large though a website, such as - case filing, certified copies of orders and judgments and case status. Similarly, the advocates can access the cause lists online under this project.

Re-engineering Court Procedures and Court Processes:

An important aspect of the judicial reforms relates to re-engineering court procedures and court processes for early disposal of cases.  A comprehensive scheme of National Court Management Systems (NCMS) has been formulated and notified by the Supreme Court of India on 2nd May 2012.  Under the NCMS, a National Framework of Court Excellence (NFCE) is being prepared, which will set measurable standards of performance for courts addressing the issues of quality, responsiveness and timeliness. A Case Management System (CMS) will be developed to ensure the user friendliness of the judicial process to the stakeholders. The Policy and Action Plan of National Court Management System was released by Chief Justice of India on 27.09.2012.  The National Mission would coordinate with the NCMS and would render necessary assistance in achieving the goal of reducing pendency in courts.

The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill:

The Government continued its efforts to get the nod of the Parliament for the path-breaking legislation:  the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill. The Bill, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 1.12.2010. It was discussed in the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC), and the recommendations made by the PSC have been considered and taken into account in finalizing the Bill. The Bill was considered and passed in the Lok Sabha on 29.3.2012. It is now pending for consideration and passing in the Rajya Sabha. The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill has been prepared after holding wide ranging consultations and after holding discussions with legal experts, eminent Jurists, Non-governmental Organisations (NGO) etc.

The Bill will go a long way in empowering the citizens and establishing the confidence and faith of the people in the judicial system without exposing them to unnecessary risk. It will also meet the aspirations of the people in a functioning democracy like India, having a functioning judiciary. The Bill does not seek to infringe on the independence of the Judiciary which is the hallmark of Indian democracy and which is guaranteed under Constitution. Instead, it will enhance the accountability without affecting the independence of the judiciary in anyway.

Legal Aid:

No polity can claim to be just if it cannot provide access to justice for all the sections of its population. For it to have any meaning, justice must be available to all, but particularly to the most marginalized and the vulnerable person in our society. Free legal aid is crucial to ensure that people are able to access justice delivery institutions irrespective of their income criteria.

Unlike many other countries, India has a very progressive legal aid law that provides free legal services for a wide variety of people – women, children, workers, people living with disability, SCs, STs, those earning below Rs. 1 lakh per annum etc. Legal aid is available for both criminal and civil matters. The Legal Services Authorities Act is the key legislation to assist the marginalized people in accessing a host of rights and entitlements. Avenues to access legal aid under the Act are available from the Supreme Court down till the district and taluka level.

The Government will now be focusing its efforts to establish Legal Aid Clinics even at the village level so as to ensure access to justice for the people at their door steps. Paralegals will be trained across the country to empower and assist the marginalized people in accessing their rights and entitlements, and to man the legal aid clinics.

Good practices from other parts of the world are being studied with a view to adapt them to our context. With UNDP support, the Ministry of Law & Justice sent 4 delegations to Indonesia, South Africa, Malawi and Sierra Leone to study good practices on legal aid and empowerment. An international conference was held on 17-18 November 2012 to discuss this subject. Based on the learnings from the conference, the Ministry will be exploring mechanisms to work closely with law school based legal aid clinics so as to utilise the services of law students in providing access to justice for the poor people. The Ministry will work closely with the National Legal Service Authority and the State Legal Service Authorities to strengthen the paralegals as an institution in the country.

Gram Nyayalas:

The Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008 has been enacted to provide for establishment of Gram Nyayalayas at the Inter Mediate Panchayat level by State Governments in consultation with respective High Courts so that speedy and affordable justice could be provided to the common man at his doorsteps.  The Act has come into force w. e. f. 2nd October, 2009.

As per the information available, till beginning of December 2012 a total of 168 Gram Nyayalyas have been notified by 7 States namely Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Goa of which 151 have become operational. The difficulties faced by the States in setting up of Gram Nyayalayas were discussed in the meeting of Law / Home Secretaries of the States and Registrar Generals of the High Courts in New Delhi on 19-20 April, 2012. 

A meeting to discuss the issues pertaining to Gram Nyayalayas was convened by the Prime Minister’s Office on 16.10.2012. Considering that implementation of Gram Nyayalayas Act is a thrust area of the Government, it was decided that issues effecting the implementation of the scheme may be placed before the  Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of the High Courts in the meeting to be convened shortly. It is pertinent to mention here that complete implementation of Gram Nyayalaya scheme would result in addition of around 5,000 courts at intermediate panchayat level affording quick and inexpensive justice for common man.

Courts of Tomorrow

Technology adoption for delivery of timely justice

Background

The Government is implementing a project for computerization of District & Subordinate Courts in the country and for up gradation of ICT infrastructure of the Supreme Court and the High Courts under the e-Courts Mission Mode Project (MMP).

Under the project, 12000 courts in 2100 court complexes are expected to be computerised by 31.3.2012 and 2249 courts in 969 court complexes are expected to be computerized by 31.3.2014. The total estimated cost of phase I of the project is Rs. 935.00 crore. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the implementing agency of the project.

An E-Committee of the Supreme Court was constituted which is chaired by the Chief Justice of India to give overall policy directions to fulfilment of e-court programme. An Empowered Committee has been constituted in the Department of Justice to provide strategic direction and guidance to the e-courts Mission Mode Project. This Committee also has representative from the E-Committee of the Supreme Court.

Courts of Tomorrow

To give effect to the extensive computerisation plan as laid down by the e-courts MMP, the Courts of Tomorrow initiative will assist the judges and the registrars to obtain the best in-class ICT tools, to aid them in the dispensation of justice and administration of courts. The initiative seeks to act as a force multiplier to the on-going ICT enablement initiatives of the Judiciary, Courts and the Government.

The ‘Courts of Tomorrow’ initiative suggests the following ten interventions based on the study and analysis of existing initiatives in the Indian courts and with inputs from Judges and Registrars of the Delhi and Bombay High Court. These recommendations are directed towards technology adoption for delivery of timely justice.

1. Information Infrastructure for the Courts: Broadband Network and National Data Centre

2. Interconnection of Courts, Prisons and Police Stations

3. ICT enabled Court Rooms

4. Integrated Case and Document Management System

5. Digitisation, E-filing and E-service

6. E-orders, E-copies and E-cause lists

7. E‐administration

8. E-library

9. Provide Citizen Centric Services

10. Managed Services Model for the Judiciary

1) Information Infrastructure for the Courts: Broadband Network and National Data Centre

The on-going ICT enablement of the Indian Courts is bringing forth the emerging need for a highly secure, reliable and high speed network connecting all the courts in the country. It is suggested that all courts should be brought on to a unified network and a national data centre be made available exclusively for the courts. A disaster recovery plan also needs to be put into place.

2) Interconnection of Courts, Prisons and Police Stations

All Courts, Prisons and Police Stations should be connected on a unified, highly secure, reliable and high speed network. Apart from a high bandwidth network, suitable facilities for video conferencing and for audio-video deposition of evidence should be made available. This will allow witnesses (especially high‐risk witnesses, child witnesses, old and infirm witnesses) to be present via video conference in the court. It will also encourage audio-video depositions of evidence (supplemented by digital transcriptions; authenticated by the witness and the judge using digital signatures/bio‐metric devices such as signature pads and fingerprint readers). Video conferencing can also be used to bring in experts from the forensic sciences lab, hospitals, etc.

3) ICT enabled Court Rooms

ICT enabled court rooms will revolutionise the way justice is delivered in the country. It will not only decrease the hassles of the court staff, the litigants and the lawyers but also increase the efficiency of the Judges. It will also seamlessly connect the Judiciary with the Police Stations and the Prisons. The following steps need to be taken to realise the vision of the Courts of Tomorrow.

The courtroom to be fully equipped with computers and other courtroom technology which may include:

I. One computer for the judge with LCD touch‐screen display monitor – large enough for reading pages one at a time. The Judges, depending on their requirements and the provisions made by the court, may be provided 2-3 screens, each used for a different purpose. One of these computers may be loaded with case search and retrieval software.

II. One computer for the typist/reader/court master. The output of this computer could also be relayed to the Judge’s additional screen so that the Judge can view and/or modify the same.

III. One computer or provision for one computer for the arguing lawyer/advocate.

IV. Facility for video‐conferencing along with audio/video‐recording of oral evidence and large LCD panel for display of evidence. If the Judge and/or the court permits, audio/video recording of the entire proceedings could be done and made available to the Judge and to the court archives.

4) Integrated Case and Document Management System

a. The document management system has to be integrated with the case management system. This integrated solution may be hosted at the National Data Centre for each court.

b. The system will also provide an inbuilt Case Tracking and Monitoring system along with a time table for each case. These additional features may be used as per the need of the respective Judge or the court.

5) Digitisation, E-filing and E-service

I. Digitisation: A dedicated effort towards digitisation is required at the courts, as a first step towards paperless E-courts. As detailed under recommendation no. 10, providing of trained manpower and machines to the courts to accelerate the digitisation efforts should be done by means of a managed services model. All existing cases and court records must be digitised in a phase wise manner as decided by the respective court. The digitised records must be search friendly and should be indexed by key parameters for easy retrieval.

II. E-filing: While the old and existing cases must be digitised, the next obvious step for E-courts is to move towards E-filing, so that new cases need not undergo the tedious task of digitisation and the process of filing is simplified for the litigant and the lawyers. The following must be done to ensure a move towards paperless filing:

a. Filing of the plaint, petition, appeal, application etc., in electronic form

b. On‐line via internet or via e‐kiosks in the court premises; or

c. On other media such as CDs, DVDs, USB pen‐drives, SD or Micro SD cards etc.

d. Digital authentication of Affidavits, Vakalatnams, paper documents with physical signatures through suitable bio‐metric devices or through digital signatures.

e. On‐line payment of court fees, process fees etc.; State Governments have to make provision of e‐stamps for court fees.

f. Generation of e‐filing receipt.

g. On‐line scrutiny and verification of the e‐filed documents by the court registry.

h. Preparation of the e‐case file/placement of a new document in the e‐case file utilising the document management system.

III. E‐service:

a. Service of summonses, notices, warrants can be done through email/SMS for those who have provided their email IDs/mobile phone numbers.

b. In cases where recipients do not have email IDs or do not have access to the internet, a hybrid system could be used whereby e‐mails would be sent to the nearest post‐office/courier office where it would be printed out and served on the recipient locally (Ahmed, 2009). The digitally authenticated service report would be transmitted to the court registry via e‐mail.

c. To create an authentic proof of the delivery of the notices and summons, hand-held devices can be put to use to tag the delivery location via GPS and also photograph the location/individual. The use of hand-held devices will make the entire process more effective, transparent and will also cut down the time taken in completion of service which is a major contributor to delay in court cases.

6) E-orders, E-copies and E-causelists5

I. E‐orders: Order and judgments dictated in open court or in chambers are keyed in by the typists onto their computers which can be accessed by the Judge and corrected without requiring any draft being printed on paper. The finalized orders/judgments would be signed by the judge using his digital signature and would be added to the relevant e‐case files.

II. E‐copies: Digitally signed copies of orders and judgments would be uploaded instantly onto the court website. E‐copies of entire e‐case files would also be made available on‐line to the parties or authorized personnel. Certified copies either in paper form or digital form would be provided by the court registry.

III. E‐causelists: The courts should move towards online cause lists which would be made available through the court website and kiosks in the court complexes. Parties and their advocates could be alerted of their next dates via e‐mail or SMS.

7) E‐administration

The court administration will also need to be ICT enabled along with the use of ICT in the courts. To turn the administration into paperless would need a document management system and digitisation efforts to convert the existing documents. Further, e-meetings should be encouraged, where members could participate virtually via video-conferencing and all meeting documents, agendas, etc. could be circulated online. Authentication of documents would be done by using digital signatures. The e‐meetings could be fully archived in an indexed database for easy search and retrieval.

8) E-library

National and international judgements, law journals, and databases etc. must be made available to the Judges and their affiliates. This E-library should be made accessible to all courts in the country and other relevant institutions such as the law schools, Judicial training academies, etc.

9) Provide Citizen Centric Services

a) IVRS System for public queries regarding case status and any other details.

b) Informative Website6 which should provide

a. General Court information

b. Cause lists

c. Roster

d. Display Board

e. Court fees

f. Case status

g. Orders and judgments

h. Online forms for applications for urgent listing, inspection, process fee etc.

i. Certified copies

j. Online filing

k. Office circulars

l. E-Library

m. Virtual tour, Map and Directions

n. Webcasts of Court functions and special events or cases

o. FAQs Section for Litigants

10) Managed Services Model for the Judiciary

It is suggested to turn to a managed services model under the functional control of the Courts to increase the efficiency of the system and speed up certain processes. The following human resource needs of the courts could be serviced:
a. For Digitisation (man and machine)
b. For encouraging and supporting e-filing
c. IT Manpower for maintenance, troubleshooting and support
d. Judges Support Centre
i. Secretariat Support
ii. Research Support (for Judges or their affiliates for legal research)