By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice, held discussions on the proposed separate high court and the issue of harassment of women, during their visit to the State on Wednesday.
Chairman of the Committee and Goa MP, Shantaram Naik, said that he has already asked the Secretary, Law department to expedite the process of setting up the separate high court in the State.
Naik said that he will also take up the matter with the Union Law Minister to see that the process is expedited.
A Bill to establish separate High Courts for Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura was approved by Parliament last month by amending the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971 and other related laws.
“I feel that a State is incomplete without its own high court however small it may be,” Naik said.
The State Government, meanwhile, claimed that Meghalaya is fully prepared to have its own separate high court and even the separation of the Judiciary and the Execution has been completed in East Khasi Hills district.
Reacting to a query on growing number of pending cases in the courts (around 12,000), Naik said fast track courts, holiday courts and night courts could be set up fast disposal of the pending cases.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary panel also took up women-related issues even as it observed that more representation should be there from women in the field of employment, be it the government or the private sector.
The Committee held discussions with the State Government on the issue of women representation and their sexual harassment.
The panel also discussed the Citizen’s Charter Bill, which was termed as revolutionary by Committee member Ram Vilas Paswan.
“This bill will bring transparency in governance,” he added.
Under the Bill, a timeframe will be specified for everything, right from issue of birth certificates, death certificates, ration cards, driving licenses and other services.
According to Paswan, disciplinary action would be taken against any office which does not adhere to the regulations of the Bill. Facilitation centres would be setup in every office, besides grievances mechanism will also be an important factor of the Bill, he stated.
The panel after studying the matters will submit its recommendations to the Parliament.