NEW DELHI, Apr 29 (UNI): A bill to enhance the number of Supreme Court judges from 25 to 30, excluding the Chief Justice of India (CJI), was introduced in the Lok Sabha today to ensure speedy disposal of cases.
Introducing the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2008, Law and Justice Minister H R Bharadwaj said that the pendency of cases in the apex court had been constantly on the rise largely due to higher rate of institution of cases.
As on March 31 last year, 41,581 cases were pending in the Supreme Court.
He informed that the Chief Justice of India had intimated that the judges of the Supreme Court were over-burdened and had been working under acute work pressure.
Besides it was not possible for the CJI to constitute a five-judge bench on a regular basis to hear cases involving interpretation of constitutional law as doing that would result in constitution of less number of Division Benches which in turn would result in delay in the hearing of other civil and criminal matters.
It was therefore necessary to augment the strength of the judges so that the court could function more efficiently and effectively towards attaining the 'ultimate goal' of rendering speedy justice to the litigant public, he said.
Stop land grabbing scandal under SEZ umbrella: BJP NEW DELHI, Apr 29 (UNI): The Government policy on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) today came under scathing attack in the Rajya Sabha by senior BJP member Ravi Shankar Prasad who described the whole business as nothing but a land grabbing scandal by real estate developers.
He demanded a stop to the reckless manner in which SEZ were being allowed to be set up.
Initiating a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Prasad demanded that the government explain why it had extended the incentives to the non-processing area of SEZ which, he said, was being used to construct malls and hotels by real estate developers.
Expressing surprise over the ''Government's SEZ establishing spree'', he said at present, 439 SEZ involving 60168 hectares of land had been approved and out of that 201 notified, while in the entire world there were only 393 such zones, and in China there were only six mega SEZ.
He also sought to underline that the total land area on which SEZ were coming up in the country included 40168 hectares of private land.
The maximum limit for SEZ has been fixed at 5000 hectares with 50 per cent now earmarked for non-processing area, he said and wondered why that much land was needed by some industries like gems and jewellery which could well establish their infrastructure in just 25 to 30 hectares.
''These are very disturbing questions which the Minister should answer,'' he said.
Prasad said the SEZ developers were explaining that the non-processing area was needed for social infrastructure, but what they meant by that was malls, hotels, and tourist resorts instead of canteens for workers or schools for children.
''That is the reason the real estate developers were making a beeline for setting up SEZ, whereas they have no experience of manufacturing for exports, and just want to grab land for their business,'' said Prasad.
The BJP leader demanded that farmers whose land was being taken for SEZ should be compensated adequately.
He also wanted that the incentives for the IT industry should be extended for another ten years.
Quoting the FICCI report, he said there was a decline in exports and 40 lakh skilled workers were losing their jobs.
He also criticised the government move to allow FDI in retail, saying it would have disastrous consequences for small shopkeepers.
Participating in the discussion, Subbirami Reddy of the Congress said the industry was making satisfactory progress and exports were growing, despite the fact that the price of steel had gone up which affected all sectors.
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