-Down to Earth   The Gram Nyayalaya Act was passed in 2008 to make the judicial process participatory, inexpensive and accessible to rural India. But rural courts are still few and far between When a mobile court visited Luhari village in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district a year ago, it was a blessing for people like Birsan Singh. A tea vendor, Birsan would lose his daily income whenever he had to attend court. He...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: The law ministry has informed a high-level committee of the Supreme Court that at least 2,300 courtrooms were added in the last three years across the country, enough for augmenting the strength of the judiciary in Subordinate courts to bring down pendency of cases. Senior SC judge, Justice H L Dattu, heading the apex court's committee on court management, met senior officials of the law...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: What actions constitute rape? If you are a rape survivor what happens during medical exam? Is the two finger test legal? What information should your FIR on sexual assault contain? Can you afford to delay it? Can you ask for medical assistance but refuse to file a case? Fundamental questions like these are rarely raised by anyone except victims of sexual violence and the answers...

-Outlook Over two crore cases are pending in Subordinate courts in the country which also face a shortage of over 3,000 judicial personnel, a Parliamentary Committee has observed. It termed the high rate of pending cases in Subordinate courts in the country a "serious matter". "The Department of Justice (in the Law Ministry) informed that as on March 31 (last year) 2,68,51,766 cases were pending in Subordinate courts. "Some of the major reasons for...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: At a high-level meeting chaired by law minister Kapil Sibal recently, it was proposed to set up a study by an Indian Institute of Management or a reputed law school to evolve a scientific method of performance appraisal for judges so that laggards are not bundled with performing judges, particularly when they are considered for elevation to the higher judiciary. The matter was discussed at a...