Amidst its keenness to tackle the menace of corruption in an expeditious manner, the Law Ministry has sought opinion of various ministries on the proposed Lokpal Bill. "There is absolute clarity. (There is) no confusion," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters in New Delhi when asked about the fate of the Lokpal Bill. He said the draft legislation has been circulated to various ministries to elicit their opinion. However, he did not speak further on the issue saying it was now under the consideration of the Group of Ministers recently set up to consider various administrative and legislative measures to deal with corruption in high places.
While underlining the government's keenness to tackle the problem of corruption, Moily said Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia has recently written to the Chief Justices of all the High Courts to fast-track such cases. The government recently demonstrated its seriousness to take steps against corruption when it formed the GoM. The terms of reference include relinquishing of discretionary powers enjoyed by the union ministers, State funding of elections, ensuring full transparency in public procurement and contracts and enunciation of a new public procurement policy and introduction of open and competitive system of exploiting natural resources.
Moily said the government is working to enact a law to make right to justice a fundamental right for Indian citizens. "We (the law ministry) are already working on a system to make right to justice a fundamental right. We need to have efficient legal system in the country to achieve inclusive growth. I will try to work on the system where we could have an efficient band of lawyers to provide aid especially to the weaker section of the society," he said adding that bill was being readied by his ministry.
Referring to the National Litigation Policy, he said states have been asked to frame their own litigation measures on the lines of the national policy."The new policy is expected to reduce average pendency time of cases from 15 years to 3 years," he said, adding that it focuses on core issues like managing and conducting litigation in a cohesive manner. The policy also ensures that "bad cases" are not needlessly pursued while "good cases" are won. Several thousands of cases are pending in courts where government employees, both serving and retired, have challenged decisions of their departments with regard to promotions and benefits.
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(Source-DD News)
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