Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 14 (IANS) Law and Justice Minister M.Veerappa Moily Friday stressed the need for fast-tracking trials in corruption cases and said the issue is being considered by a group of ministers.Whoever indulges in corruption should not go unpunished and the stature or standing of such a person should not come in the way of dispensing justice, he said in a press conference, focussing on his ministry’s achievements in 2010.

Moily said Chief Justice of India S.H.Kapadia has already taken initiatives in this direction and has asked the chief justices of all the high courts to take steps for fast-tracking trials in corruption cases.

He said the central government too was talking to the chief justices in this matter and recently he held discussions with the chief justices of the high courts of the eastern Indian states at Kolkata.

The minister said an elaborate consultation was also being held to evolve consensus on electoral reforms.

He said consensus was necessary to facilitate the comprehensive reforms to get through parliament that would involve the amendments to the Constitution, the Representation of People Act and several other regulations.

The Lok Pal (ombudsman) bill is in circulation before various ministries and in its final stages, Moily said.

He said that before any law is enacted by the central or state governments, there should be a judicial impact assessment involving every dimension relating to the proposed law, including financial implications.

On the apex court’s observation that “a republic can’t bear the stain that it will kill its own children” as it heard a petition seeking a judicial probe in the killings of Communist Party of India-Maoist spokesman Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and journalist Hemchandra Pandey by the Andhra Pradesh Police, Moily said: “We are with Supreme Court on this issue.”