How can we have standards and accountability for the judges and not for the lawyers?

How can we have standards and accountability for the judges and not for the lawyers? If we have strict accountability norms for judges but not for lawyers, it will create an imbalance in the judicial system.
"We are not doing anything surreptitiously. We have put the Bill in the public domain and have sought the views and reactions of public at large. The Bar Council of India may discuss the matter with the government. We value their suggestions," he told TOI.

Mr. Modi should stop providing misleading information to the people of India, when he said that there hasn't been any legal reform in the recent past. Each country has its own way of development and growth. It will be sheer foolishness if we adopt western ways and reforms in our country straight away. If America has been successful in gaining control over terrorism, so do we in some aspect, but comparing ourselves with America and thrashing the efforts of government is not a healthy practice. American politicians don't wear Dhoti -Kurta, then why does Mr. Modi wear those stuffs. They speak English, but why doesn't Mr. Modi speak so always.

My duty is to ensure that laws adopted by Parliament are obeyed and enforced.

“Whoever is the cause of the crime, an individual or a collective, must be punished. My duty is to ensure that laws adopted by Parliament are obeyed and enforced. Once the law is made, it must be enforced. Those involved must be punished,” 

Without directly naming the Khap panchayat’s (village councils) that generally approve honour killings, the Union minister said the proposed law would define honour killings and take within its sweep cases of forcing women to strip in public and expelling people from villages.

“Acts which are humiliating will be punished with severity.”

He added that such cases bring ‘dishonour to the families, the community and the country’.

Mostly village councils in rural India, particularly in northern states, award death sentence to couples or even their entire families in they go for same caste or clan marriages.

A Group of Ministers (GoM0 has already been set up by the Cabinet to consider a draft bill.

“I am confident that the GoM will give its report shortly and my intention is to introduce the bill in this session itself,” Chidambaram said.

Whether the new law would be a stand-alone one or would the Indian Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure Code be amended would be debated by the Union Cabinet, he added.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, expressing concern at the growing menace of honour killings, said, “It is a dehumanising process and we have to take it very seriously.”

Centre to spend Rs 15,000 cr for infrastructure in courts

"The Cabinet note on the issue is ready. The programme upon approval would be implemented over a period of four years," Moily said at a conference of advocates and human rights delegates on the theme "Law as an instrument of Economic and Social Change" here


Government was contemplating setting up five regional consultative centres to prepare faculty and improve curriculum in legal education in Guwahati, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Goa, he said, adding, it was also working on a plan with the Chief Justice of India to ensure that the delay in disposal of cases does not exceed beyond three years. 

Fourteen National Law School of Universities would be added to as many existing in the country in the coming years, he said. 

In the wake of increase in the number of honour killings in parts of the country, Moily said a bill to prevent such crimes was in the offing and being drafted.

Slow justice contradicts India's democratic strengths: PM

The prime minister said democracy held "little meaning for the common man" unless he or she is able to secure basic rights and gain easy access to speedy justice.

"The Indian legal and judicial system in some sense reflects great contradiction Our democracy and legal system have strengths that are admired all over the world. We have a free press, a true independent judiciary and independent institutions like the Election Commission and Comptroller and Auditor General of of India, which underpin our democratic framework," he said. 
"However, all these strengths are somewhat diminished due the backlog of cases," the prime minister added.
He asked state governments to initiate immediate action for the operationalisation of the Gram Nyayalaya Act, passed by the government last year and according to which 5,000 rural courts will be set up at the village level to dispense speedy justice. 
"I urge state governments to initiate immediate action to operationalise this act in their states. Once the act is fully implemented, we will have more than 5,000 courts at village panchayat level. These will bring justice at the doorstep of common people," the prime minister said. 
According to official figures, there are over 3.10 crore cases pending across the country and the rural courts are aimed to help speed up the justice delivery system.

These courts will deal with cases at a level below the subordinate courts but in the same capacity. The act provides for first class judicial magistrates dispensing justice. Judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) will be posted at the rural courts and will be called Nyaya Adhikaris. 

Justice no longer delayed

In an interview to a national daily this week, Moily said his ministry is planning to set up 5,000 new courts in the next three years, each working in three shifts to clear a backlog of  27.4 million cases pending in trial courts.

The Moily ministry’s roadmap for judicial reforms sees court cases resolved in just a year. At present, some cases drag on for 15 years or more.
Also in the pipeline are time limits for delivering verdicts, laptops for trial court judges and retired judges pitching in with their time.

Languishing of under-trials in jails is regrettable

The judiciary and the executive must work together to eliminate the “scourge” of huge number of pending court cases.

“I can assure this august gathering with all the emphasis at my command that my government will not be found wanting at any level in this joint effort …We promise to match each step of the judiciary with two of our own. We will not hesitate to walk the extra mile at every opportunity.”

“Once the Act is fully implemented, we will have more than 5,000 courts at the intermediate Panchayat level. These will bring justice to the doorsteps of the common people, who currently feel that getting justice in India is not only time-consuming and costly, but sometimes also an intractable proposition.”

“Fast track courts should conduct their business differently and faster than normal courts. Only then shall we be able to tackle pendency in cases.”

Dr. Singh regretted that despite the pronouncements of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, a large number of under-trials were still languishing in jails, many of them for periods longer than they would have served had they been sentenced.

The next five years would be an era of judicial and legal reforms.

New Law Minister Veerappa Moily, meanwhile, gave notice: "The next five years would be an era of judicial and legal reforms." He spoke of measures to radically trim the huge pendency of cases - new civil and criminal courts to fast-track a notoriously sluggish process, to deliver "affordable and accessible justice to the last man in the queue". He promised a systematic attempt to fight the creeping evil of corruption in higher judiciary - making it mandatory for judges to disclose assets, taking a more serious look at an impeachment law that has never ever been used.

Also on the anvil were laws to strengthen witness protection, a less severe attitude to allowing in foreign law firms. In the midst of gay pride rallies in three big cities, he even made a bold promise to reevaluate a law that still criminalizes homosexuality in India.

On Thursday, in a historic judgment, the Delhi High Court went ahead and struck down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, decriminalizing homosexuality. This judgment is particularly surprising, given the revisionist thinking that followed the groundbreaking nature of some of such controversial pronouncements.

After Islamic and Christian groups expressed loud reservations, the law minister had to famously renege on his own casually offered pledge to amend Article 377, the law authored during Lord Macaulay's time that makes "unnatural sex" a punishable offence. It was hardly, if ever, used punitively on consensual homosexual activity, but gay rights activists have long wanted the "criminal" tag to go.