Legislature does not conduct study on impact of laws; Section 138 NI Act an example: CJI NV Ramana

The legislature does not conduct studies or assess the impact of the laws it passes, giving rise to many issues, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said on Saturday..A good example of such lack of post-legislative assessment is Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, which deals with cheque bouncing cases. This provision has piled up burden on already over-burdened magistrates, he opined."The legislature does not conduct studies or assess the impact of the laws that it passes. This sometimes leads to big issues. The introduction of Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act is an example of this. Now, the already burdened magistrates are further burdened by thousands of these cases," the CJI said..Similarly, rebranding the existing courts as commercial courts, without creating special infrastructure, will not have any impact on the pendency of cases, he added.The CJI was speaking at the valedictory ceremony of Constitution Day celebrations held at Vigyan Bhawan on November 27..The issue of pendency, he said, is multifaceted in nature. He, therefore, expressed hope that the government takes into consideration the suggestions received during these two days and resolves the prevailing issues..In his speech, the CJI also highlighted the issue of lack of judicial infrastructure, stating that one of the major issues is that states are not utilising the funds allocated by the Central government.The solution is to gave a special purpose vehicle in the form of a Judicial Infrastructure Authority, he said."Funds are not the problem. The problem is with some of the States not coming forward to match the grants. As a result, the central funds largely remain unutilised. That is the reason why I am proposing a special purpose vehicle of Judicial Infrastructure of Authority. I beseech the (Law) Minister to take this proposal to logical conclusion," he said.He also urged the Union Law Minister to expedite the process of filling up judicial vacancies..[Read full speech]