Category: Legal awareness

Ministry of Law and Justice Press Release 24 March 2022

The Ministry of Law and Justice, Department of Legal Affairs had taken the initiative for launch of the Legal Information Management and Briefing System (LIMBS), a web based application for upload of information and monitoring of  court cases where Union of India is one of the parties. It is an innovative and easy to access online tool which is available 24×7 to all the stakeholders’ viz., government officials, department users, nodal officers, etc.

LIMBS Ver.2 is an upgraded version of LIMBS developed by NIC. It is a dashboard based system for the user Ministries/Departments on which they can feed the litigation matters pertaining to them and monitor them. This version is overhauled with the use of Open Source technologies using Coordinator framework of Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) to enhance the security of the system and improve the efficiency of the system. Till date, LIMBS Ver.2 has captured more than 8.06 lacs court cases (including archive cases) with 5.50 lakh live cases, 14204 registered users, more than 20000 advocates and 3302 courts on a single platform.

The Government has introduced Mediation Bill, 2021 in the Rajya Sabha on 20.12.2021 to enact a standalone law on Mediation.  The Bill aims to promote and facilitate mediation, especially institutional mediation, for resolution of disputes, commercial or otherwise, enforce mediated settlement agreements, provide for a body for registration of mediators, to encourage community mediation and to make online mediation as acceptable and cost effective process and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The Bill is presently under examination of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.

This information was given by Shri Kiren Rijiju Union Minister, Minister of Law and Justice, in Rajya Sabha today.

The Government has taken a number of initiatives for providing financial assistance to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to cope with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including access to working capital. These include the following:

1. Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) – maximum project cost is Rs. 25 lakh, which includes capital expenditure and working capital.
2. Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS) – maximum 85% guarantee is extended upto credit facility of Rs. 200 lakh, for both term loan and working capital. As per the Budget Announcement 2022-23, to facilitate an increased flow of credit, Rs. 2 lakh crore additional credit facility will be provided to Micro & Small Enterprises under this scheme.
3. Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) – announced as part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package in May, 2020 to provide Collateral free Automatic Loans for businesses, including MSMEs. Initially, the admissible limit of the guarantee was Rs. 3 lakh crore which was later enhanced to Rs. 4.5 lakh crore. As per the Budget Announcement 2022-23, the ECLGS is being extended up to March 2023 with an expanded guarantee cover of Rs. 5 lakh crore. The additional guarantee cover of Rs. 50,000 crore is earmarked exclusively for the hospitality and related enterprises.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The Registry of Supreme Court of India has compiled data on the status of judicial infrastructure and court amenities.  A proposal has been received from Chief Justice of India for setting up of National Judicial Infrastructure Authority of India (NJIAI) for arrangement of adequate infrastructure for courts, as per which there will be a Governing Body with Chief Justice of India as Patron-in-Chief. The other salient features of the proposal are that NJIAI will act as a Central body in laying down the road map for planning, creation, development, maintenance and management of functional infrastructure for the Indian Court System, besides identical structures under all the High Courts. The proposal has been sent to the various State Government/UTs, as they constitute an important stakeholder, for their views on the contours of the proposal to enable taking a considered view on the matter.

As far as the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary is concerned, the primary responsibility of development of Infrastructure facilities for judiciary rests with the State Governments.  To augment the resources of the State Governments, the Union Government has been implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Development of Infrastructure Facilities in district and subordinate courts by providing financial assistance to State Governments / UTs in the prescribed fund sharing pattern. The scheme is being implemented since 1993-94. Till date, the Central Government has sanctioned Rs. 8758.71 crore under the Scheme to States/UTs, out of which Rs. 5314.40 crore has been released since 2014-15 which is around 60.68% of the total release under the scheme. The Government has approved the continuance of this CSS for a period of 5 years from 01.04.2021 to 31.03.2026, with a total budgetary outlay of Rs.9000 crores, including Central share of Rs.5307 crores. The scheme components have been expanded, to also cover the construction of toilets, digital computer rooms and Lawyers’ Hall, in addition to the Court Halls & Residential Units in the district and subordinate courts. Pursuant to the extension of the scheme and introduction of new features in the scheme, revised guidelines have been issued on 19.08.2021 for implementation of Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary.

This information was given by Shri Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister, Ministry of Law and Justice, in Rajya Sabha today.

In the pre-Covid period, the virtual hearing setup was being used by most of the courts primarily for conducting remand matters without movement of prisoners between court and jails. This experience helped in expanding the video-conferencing (VC) of court hearings in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.To bring about uniformity and standardization in the conduct of VC, an overarching order was passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India on 6th April 2020 which gave legal sanctity and validity to the court hearings done through VC. Further, Model VC rules were framed by a 5-judge committee which was circulated to all the High Courts for adoption after local contextualization. 23 High Courts have already adopted these Model Rules. Video conferencing emerged as the mainstay of the Courts during the Covid lockdown period as physical hearings and normal court proceedings in the congregational mode were not possible. Since Covid lockdown started, the District courts heard 1,11,40,223 cases while the High Court heard 60,21,688 cases (totalling 1.71 cr) till 31.01.2022 using video conferencing. The Supreme Court held 1,81,909 hearings till 08.01.2022 since the beginning of lockdown period.To augment the VC infrastructure of the Courts, one VC equipment each has been provided to all Court Complexes including Taluk level courts and additionally funds have been sanctioned for additional VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms. Funds for setting up 2506 VC Cabins have been made available. Additional 1500 VC Licenses have been acquired. VC facilities are already enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails. A sum of Rs. 7.60 crore has been released for procurement of 1732 Document Visualizers.

To bridge digital divide, Government has released Rs. 12.54 crore for setting up eSewa Kendras. As on 31.01.2022, 475 eSewa Kendras have been made functional under 25 High Courts. Rs. 12.12 cr has been allocated for creating 1732 Help Desk counters for e-Filing in Court Complexes; Judicial Service Centres have been established at all computerized courts to serve as a single window for filing petitions and applications by litigants / lawyers and for disseminating judicial information related to cause lists and other case related information to the lawyers and litigants through Info Kiosks. Mobile e-courts van equipped with Wi-Fi and computers for video conferencing for speedy disposal of cases have also been started in Uttarakhand and Telangana High Courts.Training programs and awareness campaigns have been conducted from time to time to train various stakeholders to bridge digital divide and familiarise them with court digitisation initiatives. Towards creating awareness and familiarization of e-Filing amongst lawyers, Webinars on e-Filing for Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra and Delhi Bar Council was organized during June 2020 which had more than 19,000 viewers. A Manual on e-Filing entitled as “Step by Step Guide for e-Filing” has been prepared and made available on the e-Filing portal, in both English and Hindi, for use of advocates and litigants.  It has also been released in 11 regional languages. The e-Committee, Supreme Court of India has issued user manual for e-Courts Services Mobile Application and uploaded it on the official website of e-Committee in 14 languages namely English, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Khasi, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.  A Brochure in English and Hindi on “How to register for e-Filing” has been made available on the e-Filing portal for the use of lawyers. It has also been released in 12 regional languages. As part of awareness campaign, a YouTube Channel has been created in the name of eCourts Services where video tutorials on e-Filing have been made available for larger outreach to stakeholders. 12 self-help videos on e-Filing in 7 regional languages apart from Hindi and English was prepared and circulated for the advocates as part of awareness raising programme. The said videos are available in the e filing portal help desk and also in the social media through the eCommittee YouTube channel. To conduct awareness programme for advocates on eFiling and ECMT tools under eCourt Services, training of trainers has already been undertaken by eCommittee of the Supreme Court at the National and State level. 25 Master Trainers have been trained in each High Court who in turn has already trained 5409 Master Trainers across the country. These, 5409 Master Trainers have in turn imparted training programme on eCourt Services and eFiling in each district of the country for advocates in their regional languages and also identified Master Trainer Advocates.

 

This information was given by Shri Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister, Ministry of Law and Justice, in Rajya Sabha today.