Agenda items for the meeting under the Chairpersonship of Secretary (Justice) with
Finance Secretaries & Law Secretaries of States and Registrar Generals of the High
Courts on 5th May, 2011 in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
______
S.
Agenda Points
No.
I
Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC) award – A total amount of Rs.5000 crores
has been approved by TFC out of which Rs.1000 crores has been released to the
States in the year 2010-11. Some of the States has not yet released the amount and
utilization of grant within the time limit is a major concern. Guidelines for utilization
of the grants have been issued by Government of India with sufficient flexibility to
facilitate improvements. A monitoring format for utilizing the grants have also been
attached with the guidelines. The utilization of the grants is to be reviewed with the
States with the status of progress in regard to the State Litigation Policy, Perspective
Plan and Annual Action Plan.
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home
Department may provide the following information:
(i)
Copy of notification for setting up High Level Monitoring Committee (HLMC)
(ii) Copy of Perspective Plan and Action Plan
(iii) Copy of State Litigation Policy
(iv) Utilisation Certifiate
The information so far received by Department of Justice from various States is at
Page 1 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
Annexure I. This statement may be completed by the States and given to
Department of Justice during the meeting alongwith enclosures in support of
information.
The discussion on the following components covered under the Thirteenth Finance
Commission recommendations would take place:-
Setting up of Morning/Evening/Shift Courts.
i)
A grant of Rs.2500 crore for five years has been provided for increasing the number
of
Court
working
hours
using
the
existing
Morning/Evening/Shift/Special Magistrates Courts.
infrastructure
by
holding
All 14825 morning / evening
courts are to be started in the first year itself with roughly ` 3.37 lakh expenditure per
court per annum. TFC has assumed disposal of 225 lakh petty cases per year by
these courts. The collected data of pending cases from 1-15 years and above from
High Courts indicates that pendency reduction is very slow. A campaign is required
in the year 2011-12 for reducing number of long pending cases towards achieving
substantial reduction eventually. If morning/evening courts are established in early
2011 petty cases which clog the courts can be cleared on a Mission Mode and
provide more time to courts for trying other serious cases. Assuming that petty cases
constitute 40% of the total pendency in subordinate courts and assuming a
reasonable disposal rate, almost all petty cases can be disposed off during the award
Page 2 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
period of TFC i.e. year 2010-15 (Annexure II). Though this is the ideal situation,
efforts to start maximum number of morning and evening courts is to be taken and
the actual achievement and proposals to start such courts will be reviewed.
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
following information:
1.
Annual target for setting up of such Courts
2.
Number of such Courts set up by the State
during 2010-11.
3.
Number and Types of such Courts set up in
(1) Morning Courts: ______
the State till date.
(2) Evening Courts: ______
(3) Shift Courts : _______
(4) Special Magistrates’
Courts:______
(5) Holiday Courts: _______
(6) Others: _______
4.
Category and number of Judges/staff assigned
(1) Regular Judges:______
to these Courts
(2) Retired Judges:_______
(3) Lawyers:______
(4) Support staff: ______
(5) Others:_______
5.
Number of cases pending in the regular courts
on April 1, 2010
6.
Category of cases assigned to these Courts
and number of cases assigned under each
category during 2010-11.
7.
Target for disposal of cases (year-wise)
8.
Number of cases disposed during 2010-11
9.
Actual amount utilized for setting up and i. Salary
Page 3 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
running of these Courts during 2010-11
ii. Others
High Courts may also reflect on the Annexure II and may like to fix targets for reduction
of pendency in petty cases in their respective subordinate courts.
Establishment of District Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centers and
Training of Mediators
1. States may set up an ADR center, in terms of section 89 of the Civil Procedure
Code, in each judicial district which is without an ADR center. FC-XIII has allocated
ii)
Rs.600 crore for ADR centers. States may use this amount to create or upgrade
physical infrastructure of ADR centers.
2. States may use this component of the grant for the purpose of training of
Mediators/Conciliators, to train 100 judicial officers and advocates in each district
over 2010-15 at an estimated cost of Rs.0.25 lakh per person. This should facilitate
provision of necessary services, including generation of awareness, to litigants.
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
following information:
1. ADR Centres set up during 2010-11
2. Expenditure incurred(2010-11)
3. No. of Districts where ADR Centres are to be set up (year-wise)
Page 4 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
4. Amount provided in the State Budget for 2011-12
5. No. of districts where existing ADR Centres are to be strengthened(year-wise)
6. No. of successfully disposed cases (year-wise)
Lok Adalats
A component of the justice delivery grant is to be used to enable States to hold
about ten mega Lok Adalats per High Court per year and about five Lok Adalats for
each of the 1500 court locations per year, during 2010-15. The Lok Adalats are
expected to reduce pendency of cases in courts so as to dispose 15 lakh cases each
iii)
year, and 75 lakh cases during 2010-15. A grant of Rs.150 crore has been provided
for holding Lok Adalats.
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
following information:
1. Lok Adalats organized during 2010-11.
2. Expenditure incurred 2010-11.
3. Cases disposed off 2010-11.
4. Targets for organizing Lok Adalats(year-wise) and cases to be disposed off.
5. Amount allocated to State Legal Services Authorities (2010-11)
Legal Aid
Page 5 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
1. The grant component of Rs.200 crore is meant to support and strengthen the
efforts of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and State Legal Service
Authorities (SALSAs) to provide legal services to marginalized persons during 201015.
iv)
2. States, through HLMCs, may set targets of decline in numbers of under-trials in
the courts for monitoring of progress.
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
following information:
1. Physical target (year-wise)
2. Allocation made to State Legal Services Authorities(2010-11)
3. Provision made in the State Budget (2011-12)
4. No. of persons to whom legal aid provided (2010-11)
5. Category-wise distribution of 4 above: Women/SC/ST/ UnderTrials/ Persons
with disabilities/Others
6. No. of Legal Awareness Camps held (2010-11)
7. No. of Legal Awareness Camps planned (year-wise)
State Judicial Academies
Some state academies are well equipped but others have little infrastructure and few
facilities. To enable these academies to complete the training of judges promptly
through the year, Rs.15 crore has been allocated per High Court (Rs.300 crore for
twenty High Courts). These funds may be used to create the physical infrastructure of
Page 6 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
v)
the judicial academies in states where they do not exist, or for providing additional
facilities in the existing academies. State Governments plan to utilize this amount will
be discussed.
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
following information:
1. Whether the State Judicial Academy(SJA) has its own building?
2. If not, measures taken to set up the SJA
3. Expenditure incurred during 2010-11 for building or other purposes.
4. Plan of expenditure (year-wise)
Training of Judicial Officers
A grant component of Rs.250 crore has been provided for training of judicial officers
in the country to support and strengthen the induction and in-service training of
judicial officers. The funds may be used to accelerate these capacity building efforts,
under the overall supervision of the HLMC.
vi)
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
following information:
1. No. of Judicial Officers trained (2010-11)
2. Amount spent on honorarium and TA to resource persons.
3. Amount spent on developing training modules
4. Total amount spent during 2010-11.
Page 7 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
5. Provision made in the budget for 2011-12
6. No. of Judicial Officers estimated to be trained(year-wise)
Training of Public Prosecutors
FC-XIII has noted that poor quality of prosecution is often a reason for delay in
disposal of court cases where the Government is a party. The grant component of
Rs.150 crore is to be used for training of 2000 Public Prosecutors during 2010-15.
vii)
This grant component may be used to impart training at Judicial Academies, State
Administrative Institutes or other institutions such as law universities
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
following information:
1. No. of Public Prosecutors in the State
2. No. of Public Prosecutors trained during 2010-11.
3. Expenditure incurred during 2010-11
4. No. of Public Prosecutors to be trained (year-wise)
5. Provision made in the State Budget (2011-12)
Court Managers
For the post of two Court Managers for each High Court and one for each bench of
the High Court and one for each Judicial district to assess the Principal District and
Page 8 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
Session Judges, an amount of Rs.300 crores has been provided for the period of year
2010-15. The qualification of the Court Managers had been prescribed which has
been further modified to provide more flexibility in manning these posts. The
viii)
guidelines have been issued on 15.03.2011. State Government to provide information
for creation of these posts and High Courts to expedite their appointments.
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
following information:
1. No. of posts of Court Managers created
2. No. of Court Managers appointed (2010-11)
3. No. of Court Managers to be appointed (year-wise)
4. Expenditure incurred (2010-11)
5. Provision made in the State budget (2011-12)
Maintenance of Heritage Buildings
An amount of Rs. 450 crores has been provided for maintaining heritage court
buildings. The action taken by the State Government in this regard, will be discussed in
the meeting. In case there are no heritage buildings required to be maintained, the
guidelines issued on 15-03-2011 has provided flexibility to the States for utilizing the
grant allocated for the purpose.
The Registrar General / Law Department / Home Department may provide the
Page 9 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
ix)
following information:
1. No. of Heritage Buildings in the State
2. No. of Buildings identified/approved for restoration/conservation
3. No. of buildings for which restoration activities have commenced.
4. Expenditure incurred 2010-11
5. Provision made in the State budget (2011-12)
II
Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for infrastructure development for the
judiciary.
Inadequacy of infrastructure in subordinate courts has been one of the bottleneck in
the speedy delivery of justice. Keeping this in mind in the financial year 2011-12, the
allocation for the Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Infrastructure Development has been
increased to almost 5 folds from Rs.110 crores to Rs.543 crore. While the tentative
allocations to the States are being finalized, the State Governments, in consultation
with the High Courts, to prepare a plan for matching contribution for completion of
infrastructure development of subordinate judiciary in a projectized manner. The States
who have not furnished Utilisation Certificates (UCs) against past releases are to
expedite their pending UCs enabling fresh releases under the scheme. The Hon’ble
Supreme Court is also monitoring the progress of infrastructure provisioning to subordinate judiciary, Committees at State level have been constituted for monitoring the
progress. A projectised approach for optimum utilization of funds under the scheme
along with dates of commencement and scheduled completion of each work could be
Page 10 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
prepared for a phased completion of infrastructure for subordinate judiciary.
The Planning Commission provides funds for construction of buildings for
High Courts @ 30% of the project cost as per their Additional Central Assistance
(ACA) Scheme.
Hence, the CSS funds could be effectively used for building of
subordinate court infrastructure.
III
Gram Nyayalayas
Based on the reports received from the States, the status of operationalisation of Gram
Nyayalayas as on 31.03.2011, is indicated below:
State
No. of Gram Nyayalayas
No. of Gram Nyayalayas
notified
operational
Madhya Pradesh
89
40
Rajasthan
45
0
Orissa
1
1
Maharashtra
9
6
144
47
Total
An increased provision of Rs. 150 crore has been made for the purpose for the year
2011-12. Progress and likely absorption of funds would be discussed. On demand
from the State Government, State-wise allocations can also be discussed.
IV
Progress of e-Courts Project.
E-Courts project has been initiated to provide various services through Information
Page 11 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
and Communication Technology (ICT) enablement of 14249 districts and subordinate
courts located in 3100 court complexes. As per the targets and the time lines
approved by the Government, 12,000 courts will be covered under the project by
March, 2012 and the remaining 2249 Courts will be covered by March 2014. The
services such as automation of case management, provision of Citizen Centric
Services like case filing, certified copies of orders and judgments, creation of National
Judicial Grid are proposed to be provided through the project. Progress and issues
State-wise and High Court wise especially status of computerization at Taluka level
and software roll out in 5 high readiness States (J&K, Himachal Pradesh, West
Bengal, Punjab & Haryana and Kerala) will be discussed.
V
UNDP Project (Access to justice for poor & marginalized).
Department of Justice, Government of India has engaged in a partnership with
United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) for a five year project (2008-2012)
on Access to Justice for Marginalized People. The total budget allocation for the
project is USD 5.36 million. The project sought to enhance and strengthen both
demand and supply of justice; that is people’s legal empowerment to claim their
right to redress, as well as the capacities of those mandated to respond to fulfill their
obligations. The project has four objectives; Supporting national and local justice
delivery
institutions
to
improve
access
to
justice,
developing
legal
and
representational capacity of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and networks
Page 12 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
providing access to justice services to women and men belonging to disadvantaged
groups, enhancing legal awareness of disadvantaged communities and their elected
representatives in selected districts, informing policies and institutional structures
through action research and studies. Currently the project supports 24 initiatives in
70 districts of 7 States (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh). The progress and issues related to project will be
discussed.
VI
Family Courts
Family Courts will be set up with the objective of speedy settlement of Family Disputes
in a congenial atmosphere by way of conciliation rather than following an adversarial
approach followed in the regular Courts. The Family Court Act provides for setting up
of Family Courts in the Towns or Areas where population exceeds one million. State
Government can set up the Family Courts in other areas also if considered necessary.
A scheme of Central financial assistance was started in 2002-03 for setting of
Family Courts. As per the scheme a Non-recurring grant @ Rs. 10 lakh per court is
provided by the Department of Justice for setting up of Family Courts. States have to
provide matching share. Under Non-Plan, grant @ Rs. 5 lakh per court per annum is
provided for meeting running expenditure on Family Courts and States have to
provide matching share.
Page 13 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
The response of the States in sending proposals for release of grant under the
Scheme has not been very encouraging. In a number of cases, utilization certificates
for the grants released under the scheme during previous years have not been
received. The State Governments are requested to send the UCs alongwith the
proposals for release of grant under the scheme. An effort may be made to set up at
least one family court in each district.
VII
Undertrial Prisoners
Ministry of Law & Justice has launched (Mission Mode Programme for Delivery of
Justice and Legal Reforms) – Undertrial Programme. This program seeks to work with
the State Governments in identifying the undertrial prisoners who are entitled to be
released under law and link them with legal service authorities with a view to ensure
their releases. State Governments are requested to appoint a nodal officer so that the
data regarding undertrial prisoners is received from different States from respective
nodal officer in a prescribed format (enclosed) every quarter of the year. The first such
report required to be sent for the quarter ending 30th June, 2011.
VIII
Grievance Redressal Mechanism
The Department is in receipt of a good number of grievances/ petitions from the
general public wherein the issues raised pertain to the State Governments, judiciary,
etc.
Accordingly, such petitions are forwarded to concerned authorities for
appropriate remedial action.
The modalities of the prevalent redressal mechanism
Page 14 of 15
S.
Agenda Points
No.
may also be discussed.
Page 15 of 15