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Judicial council to probe charges against Judges
1,500 fast-track courts to be set up
Himachal industry surging ahead
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Judicial remand for impersonator
AIDS treatment facility eludes patients
People’s initiative for amity
Tributes paid to martyrs
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Judicial council to probe charges against Judges
Shimla, June 11 This was stated by Dr H. R. Bhardwaj, Union Minister for Law and Justice, while inaugurating the All-India Conference of Law Ministers and Law Secretaries here today. He said the decision had been taken in consultation with the Chief Justice of India and a draft legislation in this regard would be soon circulated to the states for comments. He said the proposed council would have about seven
Judges drawn form the Supreme Court and high courts. All matters pertaining to personal and judicial misconduct and other complaints against the judges would be referred to the council for probe. It would be basically an in-house mechanism to ensure accountability of the judiciary. Dr Bhardwaj expressed anguish over the virtual collapse of the legal aid
system. The deprived sections for which the scheme was introduced were not getting any benefit from it. The poor had been all but completely forgotten and the legal aid service had become a ritual. The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women and other needy aggrieved persons were not getting any legal aid because the states had failed to put up an effective mechanism to implement the scheme at the ground level. The kind of sensitivity required to implement such a scheme was missing. He said Chief Ministers and Chief Justices should take interest in the implementation of the scheme. It should be ensured that legal aid centres were in place at the district and state headquarters. Further, judicial officers and even para-judicial services should be involved in creating awareness among the sections for which the scheme was meant. Underlining the need to encourage the alternative dispute resolution system ,he said a study had revealed that the number of case being filed in an year were much more than the number of cases disposed of. The situation could be remedied by encouraging the alternative dispute resolution system and increasing the judicial manpower. He said the government had extended the fast track court scheme up to 2010 and it had also decided to give freedom to the Chief Justices of
high courts to convert fast-track courts at the District-Judge level into the magisterial-level
fast-track courts as per requirement. Expressing concern over the declining quality of advocates,
he said there was need to set up national law schools in each state so that quality of Bar, from which
Judges were drawn, improved. Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, said the government was trying to set up a joint judicial academy in collaboration with the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and the union territory of Chandigarh. Despite financial constraints the government had taken steps to strengthen the judicial infrastructure. As many as nine fast-track court had been set up and four courts of Civil Judge had also been opened. Besides, four courts of
Special Judicial Magistrate had been converted into courts of civil judge and an additional labour court had been set up for six districts. A perspective plan for judicial complexes had been prepared and only this year 11 projects involving an expenditure of Rs 25 crore would be covered. Next year, Rs 11 crore would be spent on such projects. Most of the obsolete laws had been reviewed and the process of identifying such laws was still continuing. In his keynote address Mr
Vinod Gupta, Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, said the judicial system had been overburdened and overstretched. The problem increasing pendency of cases could be dealt with only by appointing more judges and providing a better infrastructure. Mr
Venkatpati, Union Minister of State for Law and Justice, said it had been decided to
give training to the administrative staff of all courts to achieve the maximum level of competence. |
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1,500 fast-track courts to be set up
Shimla, June 11 There was a complete consensus among the ministers that judiciary should be held accountable. They unanimously endorsed the move to constitute a national judicial council to deal with allegations against the judges. The Chief Justice of India would head the council. The performance of each court would be monitored and the Chief Justice of India will be empowered to lay down the code of ethics like declaration of assets at the time of entry and thereafter every year. The allegations of judicial and personal misconduct and other complaints would be referred to the council. As per another important decision, 1500 new fast-track courts will be set up across the country to handle the staggering pendency of cases in the magisterial courts. The states will also have the option to convert the existing district-level fast courts to magisterial fast courts. While some states wanted that the new fast track courts be fully funded by the Centre, others suggested that the expenditure be shared in the ratio of 25:75 by the state and the Centre. The conference expressed satisfaction that fast track courts disposed 7.90 lakh cases over the last five years. Law ministers took note of the fact that a large number of vacancies in high courts and stressed that these be filled on a priority to make the next triennial review of strength of judges to be held in 2006 more meaningful. They resolved that the state governments would extend full support to the National Informatics Centre for the computerisation of courts. They considered it necessary to set up regional centres of the International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution and setting up of
separate Lok Adalats for the government departments and public sector undertakings. They also called upon the states to refer all commercial disputes relating to various departments and public sector undertakings for settlement through arbitration ,conciliation and mediation or fast track arbitration. They stressed the need for bringing more categories of public utility services under the purview of the permanent Lok Adalats. They recommended that the facility of free legal aid should be extended to senior citizens ,dependents of members of armed forces personnels and para-military forces who died in action and victims of terrorist violence
and riots. They were of the view that keeping in view the limited judicial manpower, secretaries of the legal authorities should not only be appointed from amongst serving cadre of the judicial services but also from sensitised
persons. The expenditure on the tours and conferences incurred by the legal services authorities should not be more than the legal aid to the poor. |
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Himachal industry surging ahead
During the past financial year, the state has recorded 7.32 per cent rise in employment as compared to 2.84 per cent in 2003-04. As per figures till March 2005 available with the Department of Industries, the state has recorded 19.71 per cent rise in investment in 04-05. The package includes 100 per cent exemption from the payment of Central Excise Duty for 10 years, total income tax exemption for 5 years and 25 per cent and 30 per cent exemption for the next block of 5 years (for Individuals and Companies), capital investment subsidy @ 15 per cent of investment in Plant & Machinery subject to a ceiling of Rs 30 lakh besides few other attractive offers. The state has witnessed Rs 3782.75 crore of new investment in 04-05 as compare to 3160.40 crore in 04-05. Out of the total fresh investment, Rs 835.74 crore of investment has been made in small scale units while 2947.01 crore were invested in medium and large scale units. Out of total 1,76,244 employments in units till the end of 04-05, 1.40 lakh persons have got jobs in small-scale units while medium and large scale units brought employment to 36244 persons. In past year the number of small scale units have reached 31752 with 246 medium and large-scale units. The state has witnessed the high rate of investment after the year 1997-98 when it recorded 22.30 per cent rise. Interestingly, the industrial growth graph of state was on a decline after the year 1995-96. In 95-96 the state had recorded 62.95-per cent increase in investments which fell by 0.91 per cent in 02-03. The major success came by the way of setting up of medium and large-scale units that were only 10 in number till the end of 1977-78 fiscal. The Solan and Sirmaur districts have attracted the largest number of units followed by Una and Kangra districts. Significant investments have been made in the textile spinning, food products, electronics, steel and steel products, chemical and paper industry. However IT companies still eludes the state. |
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Judicial remand for impersonator
Mandi, June 11 Though Mr Dhama according to documents with him claims to be a project director of the Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna but for the Vigilance Department and bank officials are yet to establish his true identity. The DSP (Vigilance), Mr Gurdev Sharma said that Mr Dhama was arrested under the Prevention of Corruption act on June 6, when he was caught red-handed taking Rs 4000 from a local resident, a bank defaulter under the PMRY. “The team has been despatched to verify his address and credentials in Delhi and Meerut”, he said. According to the police Mr Dhama carried with him a list of all bank defaulters from the Industry Department. “He approaches bank defaulters and asks them to either refund the amount or face action,” the police alleged. Apart from introducing himself as secretary, BVUP, he is carrying a letter from the Department of Small Scale
Industry (SSI), Government of India, requesting all departments and bank managers to cooperate with him as he was doing survey on the PMRY and would submit report to the ministry of SSI, New Delhi, informed Mr Sharma. |
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AIDS treatment facility eludes patients
Mandi, June 11 Talking to The Triune on the sidelines of the 15 day- long health awareness workshop being inaugurated by the IPH Minister, Thakur Kaul Singh, at Paddar tomorrow, health officials said as many as 1212 cases of HIV/AIDS had been detected in the state, but they had no facility for the anti-retroviral treatment for which the patients had to go to the PGI at Chandigarh. Though Himachal does not fall in the high-risk category state, but the state has reported over 6,000 HIV positive cases and 1,212 full blown AIDS cases as of today. More worrisome is the heavy influx of the migratory labour working in hydro-projects in the state. “Even the inter-state movement of the unregistered sex workers, catering to the tourism industry in hill stations add to the risk of the HIV infection," revealed the health officials. “The anti-retroviral drugs are expensive and cost more than Rs. 10,000 per month," informed Dr Hemant Kapur, in charge, District AIDS Control Cell, Health and Family Welfare Department, Mandi. “Drugs are available, but the department does no give any subsidies unlike in the south, where the HIV prevalence rate is high as compared to Himachal,
" he added. Health officials revealed that NACO was going to start the anti-retroviral treatment at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla soon. “But there is no provision for the zonal hospitals in the state as of now”, they said. What is worsening the plight of the HIV/AIDS patients is the fact that they fear stigma, social isolation and discrimination from the rest of the society. “They are poor patients and can not afford the expensive treatment”, revealed district health officials, which has reported over 71 cases of HIV/AIDS till today. As of now NACO is focusing on the treatment of the opportunistic infections, including sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs), and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), said the Chief Medical Officer, Dr KC Sharma. “Over 50 percent patients got to quacks, rest either do not take any treatment and suffer silently. STD and STI are treatable and preventable if the partners practice safe sex or use condoms," they informed. |
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People’s initiative for amity
Mandi, June 11 Mr Ashok Kapur, president, Mandi Beopar mandal, Mr PC Bisht from the Mandi Citizens’Council and president MMC Sushila Sonkhla and other representatives were present when the restoration work started. |
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Tributes paid to martyrs
Nahan, June 11 The Speaker, Vidhan Sabha, Mr G.R. Musafir, said the Pajhota people has contributed a lot towards freedom struggle. The Saheed Kamna Ram Samman was given to Sat Parkash Thakur, Dr Y.S. Parmar Samman was given to Lakshman Singh Thakur, Vaidh Surat Singh Samman to P.D. Bhardwaj and Mahasaya Sahi Ram Samman was jointly given to Madan Lal and Chet Ram.
— OC |
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Baddi, June 11