Rajya Sabha discusses judicial and electoral reform measures

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Thursday discussed far-reaching judicial and electoral reform measures, including 'one nation, one voter list' and 'one nation, one election', with some members calling for speedy administration of justice.

Participating in a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Law and Justice, Bhupender Yadav of the BJP said the long delay in delivery of justice is a big problem and noted that only 0.8 to 0.9 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) is currently spent on the administration of justice.

He said there should be a legal impact assessment in the country on the lines of a social impact assessment.

Highlighting the significance of judicial efficiency, he said the Centre is committed towards fairness in functioning of courts and also to the judicial appointment processes.

Yadav said prison reforms are also crucial along side judicial reforms, with about 4.5 lakh people lodged in various jails across the country.

He said there has been a long-standing demand for an All India Judicial Services.

Yadav suggested that a political consensus should be evolved towards "one nation, one voter list" as, if implemented, it would increase the voting percentage and remove duplicity. He also backed the idea of 'one nation, one election'. Amee Yajnik of the Congress flagged the "shocking" state of judicial infrastructure, claiming that 15 per cent of court complexes do not have toilets for women. S R Balasubramoniyan of the AIADMK urged the government to allocate more funds for creation of infrastructure in courts.

Prasanna Acharya of the BJD said thousands of posts are lying vacant in district courts.

Referring to judicial appointments, he said nowhere in the world the judges appoint judges except in our

country.