UPA favours National Judicial Service : Law Minister

With a view to bringing in far reaching judicial reforms, the UPA government is seriously thinking of introducing the National Judicial Service on the lines of Indian Administrative Service, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily has said.

Addressing a function to mark the first anniversary of High Court Circuit Bench in WALMI campus here yesterday, he said the Centre wanted the Judiciary to be qualitative, affordable, cost effective to the clients.

He said the Centre would fully support for speedy disposal of justice in all the courts in the country.

‘Improvement in quality is possible only when there is proper coordination among Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. The Union government, as per the guidance of the President of India, has thought of a five-year program to improve judicial system to ensure justice is rendered with minimum delay,’ he said.

Expressing anguish over the pendency of cases in courts which had mounted 2.50 crore litigations, he said it was possible to circumvent the situation if the judiciary became responsive and the government was ready to respond to all the problems, including the dearth of judges and other required staff strength.

‘Any proposal seeking recruitment will not be kept for a minute,’ he claimed.

Mr Moily sought the help of the state governments to provide the needs of the judiciary and make recommendations for proper changes and improvement to the Union government.

Advocating the need for setting up of family courts in each and every district of the country, the Law Minister said setting up enough courts to deal with corruption cases was also important. The UPA Government had given serious thoughts to this aspect, he said.

Assuring that the Dharwad High Court Circuit Bench would be upgraded into permanent bench, Mr Moily expressed his satisfaction over the achievements made during the last one year by the Hubli and Gulbarga circuit benches of the high court.