FE Editorial : Quick trial and no error

Tue, Oct 27 03:54 PM

Legal reforms in India have long been held up at the desks of status quoist law ministers. Fortunately, M Veerappa Moily seems determined enough to break that mould, at least if the vision document that his ministry prepared and presented to the Chief Justice of India is an indicator. The minister seems to have got his focus areas absolutely right. Perhaps the most important of these is reducing the time taken to settle cases. To this end, the law minister has proposed increasing the number of judges at all levels of the judiciary. He hopes to bring down the pendency of cases from 15 years to three years. If necessary, he has proposed that judges work in shifts, possibly three a day, to speed up the process of justice. He has also taken the creative step of suggesting that law students, fresh law graduates and retired judges be utilised as much as possible to speed up the work of the judiciary. Apart from the broad thrust on speeding up judicial processes, the minister has also focused his reformist drive on the biggest litigant in India—the government—and the role it plays in slowing down processes. Government officials, both at the Central and state levels, must stop using courts to make the decisions that they ought to themselves. If the government withdraws a lot of its litigation, the pressure on courts will be eased considerably. But judicial reform is about a lot more than just speeding up processes. It is also about increasing accountability, particularly of judges. The proposal to videograph court proceedings is an excellent idea. A new Bill, which will ensure judges' accountability, will likely be introduced in the winter session of Parliament. Interestingly, all the sweeping changes proposed in the vision document have the agreement of major stakeholders, including judges. That should ensure least resistance.

The law minister also has some interesting ideas on improving India's image as a difficult destination for doing business. His proposals, which he discussed at an Idea Exchange with The Express Group, include setting up commercial courts in each high court that will deal with commercial cases worth more than Rs 2 crore on a fast-track basis. This will not only encourage foreign investors, but also help quickly resolve domestic disputes like those between the Ambani brothers. The one area, though, where the law minister needs to make a more radical change than he is proposing is the Bar Council of India. The BCI is meant to regulate the entire legal industry (and legal education) but ends up acting as an interest group more than a regulator—hence, the resistance to foreign law firms, for example. It's time that the government proposed an independent regulator for the legal sector that will operate at an arms length from both the government and the legal fraternity.

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