National Mission for Justice Delivery and Reforms

The Government in Jun 2011 approved the proposal of Ministry of Law and Justice to operationalize the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms to realize and implement the objectives set out in the Vision Document adopted at the Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices on 24 – 25 October, 2009.

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 address diverse needs of all sections of stakeholders in a Mission Mode approach.

The Mission spanning 5 years (2011-2016) would focus on two major goals as envisaged in the vision document, namely :

1. increasing access by reducing delays and arrears in the system, and
2. enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards and capacities.

The composition of the Mission is given in the interactivity given below.

Click on each constituent to know its features.

Tentative Action Plan for Strategic Initiatives

1. Policy and Legislative changes such as All India Judicial Service, Litigation Policy, Judicial Impact Assessment, Amendment in N.I. Act and Arbitration & Conciliation Act, Legal Education Reforms etc.
2. Re-engineering procedures and alternate methods of Dispute Resolution such as identification of bottlenecks, procedural changes in court processes, statutory amendments to reduce and disincentivize delays, Fast tracking of procedures, appointment of court managers and Alternate Dispute Resolution.
3. Focus on Human Resource Development such as filling up of vacancy positions in all courts of judges and court staff, strengthening State Judicial Academies, Training of Public Prosecutors and ICT enablement of public prosecutors offices, strengthening National Judicial Academy and Training of mediators.
4. Leveraging ICT for better justice delivery such as implementation of Ecourts project, integration of ICT in the judiciary and use in criminal justice delivery and creation of National Arrears Grid.
5. Improving Infrastructure such as improving physical infrastructure of the District and subordinate courts and creation of special / additional courts like Morning / Evening Courts, Family Courts and Gram Nyayalayas.

The action plan is subject to change once the Governing Council meets to set out the agenda.

Infrastructure and Funding

Infrastructure development for the subordinate judiciary is the major thrust area of the National Mission. A Centrally Sponsored Scheme is in operation since 1993-94 to augment the resources of the State Governments for development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary. The funding at present on 50:50 basis except for North-Eastern states where it is 90:10 basis.

After regional consultations held during June-Aug 2010, Department of Justice has proposed that the Central contribution be raised to 75% of the allocations and sharing pattern between Centre and the States should be changed to 75:25 for the States other than North-Eastern States. This modified scheme will be implemented under the National Mission.