“National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms

The Union Cabinet on June 23, 2011 approved an ambitious programme that would usher in radical legal reforms aimed at disposal of pending cases in three years, from the current average of 15 years, and establishment of an All India Judicial Service. Known as the “National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms,” it seeks to operationalise a number of plans to ensure expeditious and quality justice.

Objectives of the National Mission

The National Mission will focus on improvement in administration of justice and justice delivery and legal reforms in the entire country and it has to address diverse needs of all sections of stakeholders in a Mission Mode approach.
The Mission spanning 5 years from 2011-2016 would focus on two major goals as envisaged in the vision document, namely
(i) increasing access by reducing delays and arrears in the system, and
(ii) enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards and capacities.

The salient features of the National Mission are:-

(1) The National Mission would comprise of Advisory Council, Governing Council, National Mission Leader and the Mission Directorate.

(2) The Advisory Council will advise on the goals, objectives and strategies of the National Mission and the Action Plan and its implementation and performance of the Mission in meeting its objectives and would be chaired by the Minister for Law and Justice and would have membership from Parliament, State Governments, Jurists & senior officers of Government of India.

(3) The Governing Council would facilitate implementation, give policy directions and oversee the work of the Mission and would be headed by the Minister for Law and Justice.

(4) The Secretary, Department of Justice would be the National Mission Leader.

(5) A Mission Directorate would be constituted to implement and monitor the various initiative / programme of the National Mission. It would be headed by an officer of the rank of the Joint Secretary who would act as the Mission Director.

(6) An Action Plan has been drawn up which would of course be subjected to change once the Governing Council meets to set out the agenda.

(7) Infrastructure development for the subordinate judiciary is the major thrust area of the National Mission. Inadequacy of infrastructure facilities in District and Subordinate courts has remained a major bottleneck in the judicial system largely contributing to the accumulation of arrears. In order to augment the resources of the State Governments for development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) has remained in operation since 1993-94 at 50:50 basis. A preliminary assessment of requirement of infrastructure for subordinate courts from the States revealed that around Rs. 7000 crore would be needed over five years for construction/maintenance etc. The Central Government outflow would be around Rs. 5500 crore over five years.

(8) The funding of infrastructure development of subordinate courts in the ratio of Central/State assistance will be 75:25 instead of the present 50:50. In case of North-Eastern State, the ratio will be 90:10 as already agreed to in the CSS Scheme by the Planning Commission. This modified scheme will be implemented under the National Mission