Draft proposal on Nyaya Panchayats sent to law ministry

The Panchayati Raj ministry has sent the draft legislation on Nyaya Panchayats, proposed as the alternative dispute mechanism at the grassroots level, to the law ministry for its revision and recommendations.

Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said, "The document has been sent to the law ministry. Except for some minor official matters, the Cabinet note will also be prepared and circulated soon," Aiyar told Business Standard.

The law ministry earlier had proposed Gram Nyayalayas as the grassroots foundation of the formal judicial system, and has been supportive of the Panchayati Raj ministry's proposal for Nyaya Panchayats.

An expert committee set up under the chairmanship of Prof Upendra Baxi, former Vice chancellor of Delhi University, had earlier submitted its report and the draft legislation for Nyaya Panchayats.

The Nyaya Panchayat issue goes back to Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as prime minister, who termed them as the major priority of his government. "We are conscious of our work on the panchayats being unfinished because we have not yet dealt with the Nyaya Panchayats," Rajiv Gandhi stated in the Lok Sabha in 1989.

The Panchayati Raj ministry had even opposed certain provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2006, prepared by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, saying that the Gram Panchayats could deal with offences like abandoning of parents at the village-level, instead of the proposed tribunal at sub divisional level.

However, the Panchayati Raj minister conceded that the Nyaya Panchayats Bill had no particular provision to deal with such intricate issues.