Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have come to the UK at the invitation of the Secretary of State for Justice, Mr. Kenneth Clarke. I have had a number of useful meetings during my stay in London, including my meeting with the Secretary of State on 7.7.2010. My meeting with the Secretary of State was very warm, cordial and fruitful. The Secretary of State reiterated the resolve of the coalition government to develop a special relationship with India, as stated in Her Majesty the Queen’s speech in the Parliament. The UK Government would like to build closer relationships with India in all spheres including the judicial system. Mr. Kenneth Clark told me about the high regard he has for our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and how much he admires the transformation that has taken place in India, particularly in the Indian economy, under Dr. Singh's leadership. Mr. Clark also acknowledged India’s “powerful regard for the rule of law" and spoke of the challenges the Indian judicial system faces.
I have had meetings with the Lord Chief Justice and the Attorney General. I also met the Chairman of the Legal Services Board, Mr. David Edmonds and Chair of the Judicial Appointments Committee, Baroness Usha Prashar. Besides, I had Round Table discussions with the Bar Council of UK, Law Society of UK, Society of Asian Lawyers and the London Court of International Arbitration which were constructive and purposeful. I also interacted with several UK law firms and the UK India Business Council. I also visited the Supreme Court of UK to witness the proceedings and attended a reception at the House of Commons.
The objective of these discussions was to enhance collaboration between the judicial and legal systems of the two countries by sharing mutual experiences. My interactions with the UK authorities have helped me understand the functioning of the judicial system in the UK.
As you all know, India has an extremely robust and independent judicial system. But we have our problems. For one, there is considerable delay in delivering justice in India. With a view to improving the interests of the consumers in India, the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh has asked me to reform our legal structure in order to reduce the delay in adjudication. The Government of India would also like to improve quality of the judiciary through reforming the legal education.
The Government of India’s first priority is to reform the legal education and upgrade the course contents in the 933 law colleges in the country. There are more than one million lawyers in India. We intend to restructure the faculty of our law colleges. The second priority of the Government is to strengthen and widen the centres of excellences and establish more National Law Schools, at least one each in each State. The Government would also like to put in place a legal regulatory regime and an oversight mechanism for the smooth functioning of the judiciary without infringing on the independence of the judiciary. In the first stage, with a view to fast track the delivery of justice and creating centres of excellence, we established National Law Schools. Now, in the second stage, we would like to introduce the second generation legal reforms. At present litigation in India involves delay of over 15 years. The Government would like to reduce this delay to less than 3 years.
We have already circulated a Vision Paper and a National Litigation Policy for national consultation. We already have had two rounds of consultation on the National Litigation Policy. We are also taking two other important measures for establishing Commercial Courts and passing a law on Judge's Standard and Accountability. This Bill is expected to be introduced in the coming monsoon session of the Parliament. A Bill on International Arbitration has already been passed by the Lok Sabha and is expected to be passed by the Rajya Sabha in the next Monsoon. I would also like India to become the centre of International Arbitration. These measures will facilitate investments by foreign companies who see the potential of our economy which has registered impressive growth in recent years and should continue to do so in future.
The Government is the major litigant in India. However, the best brains are not taking up solicitor jobs. As you all know, the Government of UK introduced innovative reforms in the judicial system during the last five years. We would like study them. We are also interested in studying the legal literacy programme and clinical programme of UK for creating public awareness about basic rights of the people in India. The quality of judges in UK is considered to be one of the best. I found the interaction with Chairman of the Law Services Board also very useful in the application of IT for speeding up litigations, regulating the functioning of commercial law firms and breaking the monopoly of law firms with regard to the fees charged by them. I also could learn about the selection process, qualifications and training of lawyers in the UK. I have collected several documents and study reports on the performance of the judiciary after the reforms in the UK. I would like to analyse them and examine their suitability for reforming the judicial and legal systems in India. To sum up, my visit has been very fruitful.
Ladies and gentlemen, now I am happy to answer your questions.
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