New Delhi Mar 24 PTI Nine judges including two whose names were reiterated by the Supreme Court collegium were on Thursday appointed to five high courtsThe Department of Justice in the Law Ministry tweeted that six of the nine new judges are advocates and the remaining three are judicial officersAdvocates Rahul Bharti and Moksha Khajuria Kazmi have been appointed as additional judges of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Their names were returned by the government to the SC collegium in July-August last year with a request to reconsider the recommendations The collegium had reiterated its recommendations later last yearWhile the apex court collegium had first recommended Kazmis name as judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in October 2019 Bhartis name was recommended in March last yearAmong those appointed also include judicial officers Poonam A Bamba and Swarna Kanta Sharma They have been made judges of the Delhi High CourtWhile two advocates have been appointed as judges of the Patna High Court a judicial officer has been appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High CourtTwo advocates were appointed as additional judges of the Madras High CourtIn a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Thursday the government said as on March 16 against the sanctioned strength of 1104 judges in the 25 high courts 699 judges are in position leaving 405 vacancies PTI NAB ZMN

New Delhi Mar 23 PTI Congress Lok Sabha member Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday expressed concern over what he termed as a trend of youths in Assam joining the rebel group ULFA mainly due to unemployment and urged the government to take urgent steps to check thisMaking a Zero Hour reference he said while it helps them make easy money it endangers their as well as their families futureGogoi said for the past few years youths are joining the United Liberation Front of Asom ULFA largely due to lack of employment opportunitiesHe said the situation should be checked and the Centre should send a team of intelligence and security experts to find a solutionHe cautioned that such trends should be checked in states which share international bordersGogoi said the hard earned peace in the state should be preserved PTI NAB ZMN

New Delhi Mar 22 PTI The Union Cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod to a bill to merge the three municipal corporations in Delhi sources in the government saidThe Delhi Municipal Corporation Amendment Bill is likely to be introduced in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament they said The unified municipal corporation the sources said will be a well-equipped entity for optimum and even utilisation of financial resources which will reduce mounting liabilities expenditure on the functioning of the three municipal corporations and improve the civic services of the national capitalSome more amendments have also been cleared in the principal Act of 1957 to ensure more robust delivery architecture for greater transparency improved governance and more efficient delivery of civic services for the people of Delhi they said The amendment provides for a unified municipal corporation of Delhi by subsuming the existing three corporationsThe erstwhile Delhi Municipal Corporation was trifurcated into three municipal corporations - South Delhi Municipal Corporation SDMC North Delhi Municipal Corporation NDMC and East Delhi Municipal Corporation EDMC in 2011 The trifurcation of the corporation was uneven in terms of the territorial divisions and revenue generating potential of each corporation As a result there was a huge gap in the resources available to the three corporations vis-a-vis their obligations the sources pointed out The gap widened over a period of time increasing the financial difficulties of the three municipal corporations leaving them incapacitated to make timely payment of salaries and retirement benefits to their employees creating serious impediments in maintaining civic services in Delhi the sources said PTI NAB ZMN

New Delhi Dec 31 PTI The year 2021 ended for the law ministry with a major push for electoral reforms and saw 120 high court and nine new Supreme Court judges being appointedDespite efforts to appoint eligible candidates as high court judges 23 names reiterated by the Supreme Court for appointment as judges to various high courts are pending with the government since 2018 The government will have to take a call on the issue in the coming yearDuring this calendar year 120 new judges were appointed to various high courts and nine high court chief justices and judges were elevated to the top courtA record 126 judges were appointed to various high courts in 2016The plan of the government to set up an all-India judicial service on the lines of IAS and IPS to recruit judicial officers for lower courts continued to face hurdles from states and high courtsEight states are not in favour of setting up this service while two have supported the idea As far as high courts are concerned two are in favour of constitution of a judicial service 13 are not in favour six want changes in the proposal while two are yet to give their responsesIn governments view a properly framed All India Judicial Service is important to strengthen overall justice delivery system This will give an opportunity for induction of suitably qualified fresh legal talent selected through a proper all-India merit selection system as well as address the issue of social inclusion by enabling suitable representation to marginalised and deprived sections of the societyA few days ago Chief Justice of India N V Ramana had sent a proposal to the government to set up the National Judicial Infrastructure Authority of India NJIAIThe proposed body would arrange for adequate infrastructure for courtsAccording to the proposal there will be a governing body with CJI as patron-in-chiefThe other salient features in the proposal are that NJIAI will act as a central body in laying down the roadmap for planning creation development maintenance and management of functional infrastructure for the Indian court system besides identical structures under all the 25 high courtsAt present the primary responsibility of development of infrastructure facilities for judiciary rests with state governmentsTo augment the resources of 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 and union territories in the prescribed fund sharing patternTill date the central government has sanctioned Rs 870977 crore under the scheme to states and union territoriesIn a major boost to electoral reforms being pushed by the Election Commission a bill was passed by Parliament in the Winter session to allow the poll panel seed Aadhaar number with electoral rolls on voluntary basisAccording to the bill the electoral law have been made gender neutral for service votersAnother provision of the bill will allow the youth to enroll as voters on four different dates every year as of now those turning 18 on or before January 1 of every year are only allowed to register as votersAnother bill on mediation was introduced in Rajya Sabha and was referred to a parliamentary panel The bill seeks to encourage the alternate dispute mechanism to take the load off regular courts PTI NAB ZMN

New Delhi Dec 17 PTI A litigation policy is under consideration to lay down guidelines for preventing controlling and reducing court cases in a cohesive and organised manner Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said in Lok Sabha on FridayMinistries and departments such as the Railways and Department of Revenue involved in a high number of litigations have been taking several measures for reducing the number of court cases he saidThe Ministry of Railways has issued instructions for effective monitoring of court cases at all levels Zonal railways and production units have been asked to take effective steps to reduce the number of cases in which the government is a party and reduce the burden of courts expedite finalisation of all the cases in all courts at the earliest and to cut down the expenditure in contesting court cases he notedFor achieving this emphasis has been laid on effective monitoring of cases by having regular meetings with empanelled advocates for briefing and necessary directions to be given at the highest level besides ensuring timely submission of replies counter replies and necessary documents to the advocates he saidThe Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs CBIC under the Department of Revenue have issued a slew of instructions and brought in several measures for reducing litigations and the resultant burden on courtsFor the purpose of monitoring of litigation of Union of India Legal Information Management Briefing System LIMBS portal was created he said As of now there are 778 lakh cases including archive cases including 578 lakh live and pending cases entered by 57 ministries and departments PTI NAB ZMN

New Delhi Nov 30 PTI A bill which seeks to bring clarity on when Supreme Court and high court judges are entitled to an additional quantum of pension or family pension on attaining a certain age was introduced in Lok Sabha on TuesdayThe High Court and Supreme Court Judges Salaries and Conditions of Service Amendment Bill 2021 which was introduced by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju amid din by opposition over farmers issues proposes to amend the High Court Judges Salaries and Condition of Service Act and the Supreme Court Judges Salaries and Condition of Service ActAccording to the bill in 2009 the two laws were amended to provide that every retired judge or after his death the family as the case may be will be entitled to an additional quantum of pension or family pensionAccordingly the additional quantum of pension to retired judges of the high courts and the Supreme Court is being sanctioned on completing the age of 80 years 85 years 90 years 95 years and 100 years as the case may be However in a writ petition filed by a retired high court judge Virendra Dutt Gyani the Gauhati High Court in it order of March 15 2018 had held that benefit of additional quantum of pension as per the High Court Judges Act in the first slab would be available to a retired Judge from the first day of his 80th yearSubsequently the High Court of Madhya Pradesh also vide its order dated December 3 2020 passed in writ petitions filed by the Association of Retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Court of India has directed respondent Union of India to construe the word from as it appears on the slab under section 16B of the 1958 Act and section 17B of the 1954 Act as the first day of entering the minimum age of the slab -- 80859095 and 100 years -- along with other consequential benefits to the petitioners the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill readsThe legislative intent behind insertion of section 17B and section 16B respectively in the two acts was to provide benefit of additional quantum of pension to a retired judge from the first day of the month in which he completes the age specified in the first column of the scale and not from the first day of his entering the age specified therein as so interpreted by the high courts it saidTo clarify the matter further an explanation is being inserted in the two laws a government functionary explainedThis is the first bill to be introduced in the Winter session of Parliament which in the last two days has witnessed disruptions by the Opposition on farmers issues including a law on minimum support price PTI NAB ZMN