Speed up justice delivery
Your columnist Indu Bhan has done well in highlighting, in ‘Speeding up justice delivery’ (January 21), the ills afflicting the judiciary and suggesting remedial measures. The number of pending cases is mounting in the courts but there are no signs of effective steps taken to remedy the alarming situation. The government will be well-advised to take action on this on a priority basis and bring about the necessary changes in the procedural law to cut down unnecessary provisions and also to enact laws to restrict the discretion of the judges in matters, e.g., granting adjournments, recusal from cases during the course of hearing and delaying judgements after completion of hearing. The vacations of courts should also be curtailed drastically as the nation can ill-afford long and frequent holidays to the judiciary while lakhs of cases are pending. There should be a law that all cases filed in lower courts must be decided within a year and cases/appeals filed in higher courts should be decided within two years. There should also be upward revision in the salaries of judges at all levels to compensate them for curtailing their vacations and increasing the workload.
KK Sharma, on e-mail
Govt, oppn must work together
Apropos of ‘India’s FY17 growth to pip China’s’ (January 21). Just a day before, president Pranab Mukherjee reminded the parliamentarians that the mandate of Parliament is law-making and that it is the joint responsibility of the government and the Opposition. The NDA government, seemingly in a hurry to revive India’s economy and growth, has brought as many as nine Ordinances for changes that could not be debated and legislated in the last session of Parliament due to disruptions. In the Rajya Sabha, the government is in the minority and cannot get through without Opposition’s cooperation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s forecast in its latest World Economic Outlook report is that the Indian economy will be the fastest-growing major global economy—outpacing China by 2016-17. The government and the Opposition should be on the same platform to bring economic and other reforms needed to accelerate the pace of India’s growth story.
MC Joshi
Lucknow
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