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The fourth floor at Shastri Bhavan, which houses the Ministry of Law and Justice, has been abuzz the whole of last week with officials sitting late into the evening, giving finishing touches to presentations for the new minister in office. For D V Sadananda Gowda, the new law minister, his predecessor Ravi Shankar Prasad seems to have set the agenda for the ministry in his five-and-a-half month stint.
High on the priority list for Gowda are bringing down the number of litigations in the country, weeding out obsolete laws, pushing for ratification of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill by state Assemblies, having more courts, fill up vacancies of judges, and expediting the creation of a national judicial grid.
Perhaps the biggest challenge that Gowda has on hand is to avoid friction between the judiciary and the legislature as he steps on the gas to push for more sweeping legal reforms, feel many in legal and academic circles. The judiciary and the executive have already seen some pow-wow over the appointment of judges in the past few months.
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"He will have to handle the judiciary very carefully and avoid confrontation with the legislature," says Ashwani Kumar Bansal, dean, faculty of law, University of Delhi. The legal fraternity is already divided over the procedure of appointing judges.
He says: "The draft Constitutional amendment and the Bill for the constitution of a National Judicial Appointments Commission is an ill-conceived measure."
According to Rao, the problem of lack of transparency and accountability of the collegium system needs to be tackled without violating the three aspects of the basic structure of the Constitution - independence of the judiciary, separation of powers and the rule of law.
"Any such commission should give marginally more representation to the judiciary while keeping the Minister for Law and Justice as a member and one eminent jurist as another member," he adds.
Manan Kumar Mishra, chairman, Bar Council of India, says the council has differences with the government over the issue of appointment and transfer of judges. "Representatives of the bar council should be involved in the process."
At present, only three state Assemblies - Goa, Rajasthan and Tripura - have given consent to the Bill. The law minister will have to use his good offices to persuade the other state governments. Consent of at least half of the legislative Assemblies in the country is required for the approval of the Bill. The government has already proposed deletion of 36 obsolete laws and has identified 287 others to take up in the winter session of Parliament. The Law Commission has identified the set of laws that it has recommended to the Ministry for removal. "Law must evolve with time, or the purpose of law is defeated", says Haigreve Khaitan, managing partner, Khaitan & Co. Two other issues that need immediate action from the minister are - clearing the judicial delivery system off arrear of cases and checking litigation by government.
According to K K Venugopal, senior advocate, Supreme Court, all cases have to be disposed-off in a time-bound manner. For this to happen the overall efficiency of the legal system has to be improved. That would involve increasing the number of courts.
"Any litigant with a genuine grievance should not be afraid to approach a court. If this is not done, our legal system will continue to remain ineffective, expensive and time-consuming," says Venugopal.
Legal experts note that central and the state governments have the dubious distinction of being the largest litigant in the country, both as a petitioner and respondent.
One way to reduce litigation by the government is to come out with a comprehensive policy to reduce repetitive and routine filing of appeals by various government departments.
"All governments should make it a policy to settle the grievances of citizens at the department level itself, instead of passing the buck to the judiciary as a matter of routine," says Rao.
This could be done by having an in-house dispute resolution mechanism at each level of the government, with appellate powers given to the next level, notes Khaitan.
"Only when the internal mechanism has failed should the courts be approached," he adds.
To deal with corruption within the legal system, Rao feels a provision should be made in the Constitution for relieving a public servant found to be of doubtful integrity.
Experts feel that having a national judicial grid to check the status of cases filed anywhere in the country would go a long way to make the legal service more people-friendly. "India needs fewer and simpler laws that are mercilessly enforced," says Rakesh Nangia, managing partner, Nangia & Co.
For Gowda, that is a challenge worth taking on.
