CMs lay out their judicial roadmap

8226; He also asked the Prime Minister, Union Law Minister and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to approve his government8217;s proposal to introduce Tamil as the language of the Madras High Court, saying it represented the legitimate aspirations of the people of Tamil Nadu

Bengal to raise judges8217; strength

8226; Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said his government is considering a proposal to increase judges8217; strength in the High Court from 50 to 58

8226; Also, West Bengal currently has 800 civil and criminal courts and there are proposals to establish 200 more magisterial courts to implement the Domestic Violence Act. Besides, 300-400 more courts in the 3-tier system will have to be set up to clear a large number of pending cases, he said

E-courts is Gujarat plan

8226; Narendra Modi said that his state had established the 60 evening courts, the first of their kind, in the country. These have already disposed of more than 60,000 cases so far

8226; Modi added that his government had also reduced the vacation period in subordinate courts from 42 days to 30 days and had also increased their working hours, leading to a reduction of arrears in court cases

8226; He further said that his government was going to initiate the concept of e-courts and technology courts, which would have facilities such as electronic filing, electronic extracts, electronic service of documents and electronic information services

8226; The installation of a video-linkage system at Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Ahmedabad and Bhuj and Gheekanta Court complex with concerned jails had been planned, he added

8226; A total of 13,200 undertrial prisoners have been produced before the courts through video system between December 2003 and February 2007. This has saved Rs 30,50 lakh due to non-utilisation of police personnel

Haryana seeks separate HC

8226; Bhupinder Singh Hooda urged the Prime Minister and the Law Minister to consider Haryana8217;s long-pending demand for a separate High Court in Chandigarh. 8220;Even the newly-created states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand have got their own High Courts. A separate High Court for Haryana may be established on the existing premises at Chandigarh by allocating 40 per cent of the building, ministerial staff and the judges appointed against the quota of Haryana state,8221; he said

8226; Hooda said that in the last 10 years, the state government has spent more than Rs 50 crore on the development of infrastructure for the judiciary

8226; He said the state government has prepared a 10-year perspective plan, currently under consideration by the Centre, of Rs 162.24 crore to further strengthen judicial infrastructure

8226; Implementation of video conferencing project for courts and jails is at an advanced stage of execution. Rs 4.52 crore has been sanctioned for the project for this year

8212;Compiled by Raghvendra Rao