DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

A Tabular format indicating the vertical compression and horizontal expansion of the Statement of Budget Estimates to establish a one-to-one correspondence between financial and the outcome budgets (The budgetary allocations for Department of Justice for the year 2015-16 are indicated as below )

FINANCIAL AND OUTCOME BUDGET

The tabular format of the scheme-wise budgetary allocations in respect of the Grant No. 64 –Law & Justice for the year 2015-2016 is as follows:

ORGANIZATIONAL SET UP

The Department is headed by the Secretary, who is a Senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer. In addition to Secretary (Justice), the organizational setup includes three Joint Secretaries, five Directors / Deputy Secretaries and seven Under Secretaries. In addition to the matters connected with the appointment of Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, the Department is also assigned the task of implementation and monitoring of Plan and Non-Plan Schemes; including the recently set-up National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms. 

SCHEMES IMPLEMENTED AND MONITORED BY THE DEPARTMENT 

The Schemes, which are implemented and monitored by the Department of Justice, are as follows:- 

PLAN SCHEMES: National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms has been set up with its period coinciding with the 12th Five Year Plan. It provides a platform for addressing the issues which affects the performance of the Judiciary. Infrastructure Development for Subordinate Judiciary is the thrust area of National Mission. Other Schemes / programmes mentioned below support objectives of National Mission: 

(i) Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructural Facilities for the Judiciary. 

(ii) Scheme for Computerization of the District and Subordinate Courts. This Scheme is being implemented as a Mission Mode Project, titled, “ëCourt MMP”. 

(iii) Access to Justice – Government of India Project. 

(iv) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assisted externally aided project (EAP) “Access to Justice for Marginalized in India”. 

(v) Financial support to the States Governments for operationalisation of the Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008. 

(vi) Action Research and Studies on Judicial Reforms. 

(vii) Setting up of Model Courts (The Scheme is yet to be approved). 

NON-PLAN SCHEMES: The Non-Plan Schemes being implemented and monitored by the Department of Justice are as under:- 

1. Grant-in-aid to the National Judicial Academy (NJA), Bhopal for meeting its operational expenditure. 

2. Central assistance to the States at specified rates for the operation of Family Courts. 

3. Grants-in-aid to the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) to monitor and evaluate implementation of legal-aid programmes and to lay down policies and principles for making legal services available under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. The Plan and Non-Plan Schemes implemented by the Department of Justice and the subjects dealt with by the Department of Justice aim at providing support to the High Courts and the States for facilitating improved administration of justice, reducing backlog and pendency of cases in the courts.

. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

The Department of Justice (DoJ) is a part of the Ministry of Law & Justice (MoL&J). However, Administrative support to the Department of Justice is being provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). As per the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, the subjects handled by the Department of Justice include the following:- 

1. Appointment, resignation and removal of the Chief Justice of India and Judges of the Supreme Court of India; their salaries, rights in respect of leave of absence (including leave allowances), pensions and travelling allowances. 

2. Appointment, resignation and removal etc. of the Chief Justice and Judges of High Courts, their salaries, rights in respect of leave of absence (including leave allowances), pensions and travelling allowances. 

3. Appointment of Judicial Commissioners and Judicial Officers in Union Territories. 

4. Constitution and organization (excluding jurisdiction and powers) of the Supreme Court (but including contempt of such Court) and the fees taken therein.

5. Constitution and organization of the High Courts and the Courts of Judicial Commissioners, except provisions as to offices and servants of these courts.

 6. Administration of Justice and constitution and organization of courts in the Union Territories and fees taken in such courts. 

7. Court fees and Stamp duties in the Union Territories. 

8. Creation of All India Judicial Service (AIJS). 

9. Conditions of service of District Judges and other Members of Higher Judicial service of Union Territories. 

10. Extension of the jurisdiction of a High Court to a Union territory or exclusion of a Union Territory from the jurisdiction of a High Court. 

11. Legal Aid to the poor. 

12. Administration of Justice. 

13. Access to Justice, Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

1. Legislative Department acts mainly as a service provider in so far as the legislative business of the Union Government is concerned. As such, it does not have any specific scheme that can be translated into physical and quantifiable outputs. However, as a service provider, it ensures smooth and speedy processing of legislative proposals of various administrative Departments and Ministries. An overview of the subject matter mainly dealt with by the Legislative Department is as follows :- 

(i) Scrutiny of Notes for the Cabinet in relation to all legislative proposals from drafting and constitutional angles; 

(ii) Drafting of all Government Bills including Constitution (Amendment) Bills before introduction in Parliament; their translation into Hindi and forwarding of both English and Hindi versions of the Bills to the Secretariats of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha; drafting of official amendments to Bills, scrutiny of non-official amendments and rendering assistance to administrative Departments and Ministries to decide the acceptability or otherwise of non-official amendments;

(iii) Rendering assistance to Parliament and its Joint, Select and Standing Committees at all stages through which a Bill passes before enactment. This includes scrutiny of and assistance in preparation of reports and revised Bills to the Committees; 

(iv) Drafting of Ordinances promulgated by the President; 

(v) Drafting of legislation enacted as President’s Acts in respect of States under President’s rule; 

(vi) Drafting of Regulations made by the President; 

(vii) Drafting of Constitution Orders, i.e. Orders required to be issued under the Constitution; 

(viii) Scrutiny of all statutory rules, regulations, orders, notifications, resolutions, schemes, etc., and their vetting and translation into Hindi; 

(ix) Scrutiny of State legislation in the concurrent field, which require assent of the President under article 254 of the Constitution; 

(x) Scrutiny of legislation to be enacted by the Union territory Legislatures; 

(xi) Elections to Parliament, Legislatures of States and Union territories and Offices of the President and Vice-President; 

(xii) Apportionment of expenditure on elections between the Centre and the States/Union Territories with Legislatures; 

(xiii) Election Commission of India and electoral reforms; 

(xiv) Administration of the Representation of the People Act, 1950; the Representation of the People Act, 1951; the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991; 

(xv) Matters relating to the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners under the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991; 

(xvi) Matters relating to the Delimitation of Parliamentary and Legislative Assembly Constituencies. 

(xvii) Legislation on matters relating to personal laws, transfer of property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, etc., in the Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution; 

(xviii) Imparting training in legislative drafting to the officers of the Union and State Governments, etc. 

(xix) Publication of Central Acts, Ordinances and Regulations and their authorised translations in Hindi and other languages specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution and also translation of legal and statutory documents. 

(xx) Publication of Patrikas containing Hindi translation of selected judgments of the Supreme Court and High Courts on cases pertaining to constitutional, civil and criminal laws. 

2 Legislative Department does not have any statutory or autonomous body under its control. It has two other wings under it namely, the Official Languages Wing and Vidhi Sahitya Prakashan, which are responsible for propagation of Hindi and other Official Languages in the field of Law. 

(a) Official Languages Wing of the Legislative Department is responsible for preparing and publishing standard legal terminology and also for translating into Hindi all the Bills to be introduced in Parliament, all Central Acts, Ordinances, Subordinate legislations, etc. as required under the Official Languages Act, 1963. This Wing is also responsible for arranging translation of the Central Acts, Ordinances, etc., into the Official Languages as specified in the Eight Schedule to the Constitution as required under the Authoritative Texts (Central Laws) Act, 1973. The Official Languages Wing also releases Grantsin-aid to various registered voluntary organisations engaged in promotion and propagation of Hindi and other regional languages and those organisations, which are directly engaged for the publication of legal literature and propagation of Hindi and other languages in the field of Law. 

(b) Vidhi Sahitya Prakashan is mainly concerned with bringing out authoritative Hindi versions of reportable judgments of the Supreme Court and the High Courts with the objective of promoting the progressive use of Hindi in the legal field. In this connection, the Vidhi Sahitya Prakashan brings out various publications of legal literature in Hindi. It also holds exhibitions in High Courts, District Courts and Law Colleges of various States for giving wide publicity to legal literature available in Hindi and to promote sales. Under the Scheme for writing, translating and publishing of law books in Hindi and awarding prizes to such books for use as text books or reference books, an award to the tune of Rs.5,00,000/ - (Rupees Five lakh only) has been instituted. Under this Scheme, 1st prize of Rs.50,000/-(Rupees fifty thousand only), 2nd prize of Rs.30,000/-(Rupees thirty thousand only) and 3rd prize of Rs.20,000/ -(Rupees twenty thousand only) are awarded annually for the best publication in Hindi. 

3. The organisational set-up of the Legislative Department includes the Secretary, Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary & Legislative Counsel, Additional Legislative Counsel, Deputy Legislative Counsel and Assistant Legislative Counsel. The work relating to legislative drafting in relation to all forms of principal legislation and scrutinising and vetting of subordinate legislation under various statutes has been distributed amongst Legislative Groups of officers. Each Group is headed by a Joint Secretary & Legislative Counsel or Additional Secretary, who in turn is assisted by a number of Legislative Counsel at different levels. The Secretary acts as the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and the Additional Secretary is in charge of all subordinate legislation. 

ORGANISATIONAL SET –UP

The Department of Legal Affairs has a two tier set up, namely, the Main Secretariat at New Delhi and the Branch Secretariats at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. The organization chart of the Department may be seen at Annexure. I. The nature of duties discharged can be broadly classified in to two area- Advice work and Litigation work. 

(A). MAIN SECRETARIAT:- 

1) The set up at the Main Secretariat includes Law Secretary, Additional Secretaries, Joint Secretary and Legal Advisers and other Legal Advisers at various levels. The work relating to tendering of legal advice and conveyancing has been distributed amongst groups of officers. Each group is normally headed either by an Additional Secretary or Joint Secretary and Legal Adviser, who in turn, is assisted by a number of other Legal Advisers at different levels. 

2) The litigation work in the Supreme Court on behalf of all the Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and some administrations of the Union Territories is handled by the Central Agency Section presently headed by a Senior Government Advocate. 

3) The litigation work in the High Court of Delhi on behalf of all the Ministries/Departments of the Government of India is processed by the Litigation [High Court] Section presently headed by a Deputy Legal Adviser. 

4) The litigation work in the Subordinate Courts in Delhi is handled by the Litigation [Lower Court] Section presently headed by a Deputy Legal Adviser. 

5) The Department has a special cell, namely Implementation Cell for dealing with the implementation of the recommendations of the Law Commission and the administration of the Advocates Act, 1961.It also deals with the legal profession. This cell is also concerned with the National Tax Tribunal Act, 2005 and it has also been entrusted with the work of coordination under the Right to Information Act, 2005. 

6) There is one sanctioned post of Joint Secretary & Legal Adviser each at Railway Board, Department 3 of Telecommunication and Central Bureau of Investigation respectively and the incumbents to the posts function from the said offices. Further, there is one sanctioned post of Joint Secretary and Legal Adviser in the Department of Public Enterprises and the incumbent functions as an Arbitrator under the scheme of Permanent Machinery of Arbitration in that Department. One Additional Legal Adviser functions as an Arbitrator in the Arbitration cases in the DGS&D. Further, one Deputy Legal Adviser functions from the Army Purchase Organization under the Ministry of Defence. In addition, some officers of different levels such as Additional Legal Adviser, Deputy Legal Adviser and Assistant Legal Adviser are also posted in the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Urban Development and DGS&D, Department of Justice. 

(B) Branch Secretariat, Mumbai:- The Branch Secretariat at Mumbai is headed by a Joint Secretary and Legal Adviser. He is assisted by Additional Legal Advisers, Deputy Legal Adviser, Assistant Legal Adviser and other supporting staff. The litigation work in that Branch Secretariat is handled by one Sr. Government Advocate and three Additional Government Advocates. 

(C) Branch Secretariat, Kolkata :- The Branch Secretariat at Kolkata is headed by a Senior Government Advocate. He is assisted by Additional Legal Advisers, Deputy Legal Adviser, Assistant Legal Adviser and other supporting staff. The litigation work in that Branch Secretariat is handled by one Sr. Government Advocate and two Additional Government Advocates. 

(D) Branch Secretariat, Chennai :- The Branch Secretariat at Chennai is headed by a Deputy Legal Adviser. He is assisted by Assistant Legal Advisers and other supporting staff. 

(E) Branch Secretariat, Bangalore :- The Branch Secretariat at Bangalore is headed by an Assistant Legal Adviser.

FUNCTIONS AND ORGANISATION SET UP

The Union Ministry of Law and Justice comprises of three Departments, namely the Department of Legal Affairs, Legislative Department and Department of Justice and through the said Department, the Ministry assists in the process of orderly change directed towards realisation of the objectives set out in the Constitution. 2. The Legislative Department and the Department of Legal Affairs act as service providers in so far as the legislative business of the Government and tendering advice on legal matter to Ministries/Departments, is respectively concerned. Thus the said two Department do not have any specific schemes, which can translate in to specific and quantifiable outputs. 2. DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS. Functions and Responsibilities. 1. The Department has been allocated the following items as per the Government of India [Allocation of Business Rules] 1961:- (a) Advice to Ministries on legal matters including interpretation of the Constitution and the laws, conveyance and engagement of counsel to appear on behalf of the Union of India in the High Courts and subordinate courts where the Union of India is a party. 

(b) Attorney General of India, Solicitor General of India and other Central Government law officers and in respect of the States whose services are shared by the Ministries of the Government of India. (c) Conduct of cases in the Supreme Court and the High Courts on behalf of the Central Government and on behalf of the Governments of States participating in the Central Agency Scheme. 

(d) Reciprocal arrangements with foreign countries for the service of summons in civil suits, for the execution of decrees of Civil Courts, for the enforcement of maintenance orders, and for the administration of the estates of foreigners dying in India. 

(e) Authorization of officers to execute contracts and assurances and of property on behalf of the President under Article 299(1) of the Constitution, and authorization of officers to sign and verify plaints or written statements in suits by or against the Central Government. 

(f) Indian Legal Service. 

(g) Treaties and agreements with foreign countries in matters of civil law. 

(h) Law Commission. 

(i) Legal Profession including the Advocates Act, 1961 (25 of 1961) and persons entitled to practice before High Courts. 

(j) Enlargement of the jurisdiction of Supreme Court and conferring thereon of further powers; persons entitled to practice before the Supreme Court; references to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the Constitution of India. 

(k) Administration of the Notaries Act, 1952 (53 of 1952). 

(l) Income-tax Appellate Tribunal. 

(m) Appellate Tribunal for Foreign Exchange

2. The Department has also been allocated to administer following Acts: 
(a) The Legal Service Authority Act, 1987; 
(b) Advocates Welfare Funds Act, 2001; 
(c) The National Tax Tribunal Act, 2005; 

3. The Department is also administratively in- charge of the Appellate Tribunal for Foreign Exchange, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the newly set up National Tax Tribunal and the Law Commission of India. The Department is also administratively concerned with all the matters relating to the Indian Legal Service. It is further connected with the appointment of Law Officers namely the Attorney General of India, the Solicitor General of India and the Additional Solicitor Generals of India. With a view of promoting studies and research in law and with a view to promoting Alternative Disputes Resolution Mechanism, improvement in legal profession, this Department sanctions grant in aid to certain institutions engaged in these fields, like, Indian Law Institute, International Central for Alternative Disputed Resolution, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies and Bar Council of India.