Setting Up Gram Nyayalayas : Law Ministers Meet

New Delhi, Jan 31 (UNI) Law Ministers and Secretaries and High Court Registrars from around India will meet tomorrow to discuss setting up Gram Nyayalayas, Law and Justice Ministry said today.

The day-long meet sponsored by the Law and Justice Ministry will take up time-frame and financial arrangements for the Nyayalayas, a Ministry statement said.

The meeting will be chaired by Law and Justice Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj, the statement said.

It said the governmment has decided to pursue enactment of the Gram Nyayalayas Bill, 2007 introduced in Parliament and examined by a Department-related Standing Committee.

The meeting is intended to discuss various aspects of implementation before the Bill is enacted.

The Goals of the Bill: -- Providing speedy, affordable and substantive justice to the poor at grass root level in rural areas at their doorstep; -- Gram Nyayalaya to act as Subordinate Court at Intermediate Panchayat level; -- Gram Nyayalayas to be in addition to civil and criminal courts established under any other law for the time being in force; -- The Central government to bear non-recurring expenditure for setting up Gram Nyayalayas and half the recurring expenditure for the first three years; -- Gram Nyayalayas to be empowered to deal with criminal and civil cases as per the procedure laid down in the Bill.

UNI MJ SHB HT1940