Ways to strengthen criminal justice system under discussion, Gowda tells law ministry's consultative committee

Law and Justice Minister Sadananda Gowda has told his ministry's consultative committee that consultations could be held with the Home Ministry to strengthen criminal justice system.

He was responding to concerns of members on the large number of pending criminal cases in the country.

The participants also discussed 'e-Courts/Computerization of courts' and Repeal of obsolete and redundant Laws'.

Committee members K. Parasaran, K.T.S. Tulsi and Majeed Memon said that the modernization of the criminal justice system including in the manner of registering an FIR and recording of evidence etc, should be seriously considered.

Gowda said that presently over 13,000 district courts are being modernized and being linked to the National Judicial Data Grid.

Proposals for 'e-Courts Phase-II" wherein the entire process of litigation from filing of cases, to the final judgment stage, which is expected to lead to an effective monitoring of justice delivery system, also came up for discussion at Monday evening's meeting.

Gowda also gave details of pending bills for the repeal of 36 Acts, including four Principal Acts and another Bill for the repeal of 90 Amending Acts.

Balasubramaniam Senguttuvan, Joice George, Ranjeet Ranjan, A. Navaneethakrishnan, Ayannur Manjunath, Kalyan Banerjee and G.N. Ratanpuri were the other members present during the discussion.