Govt asks Law deptt to put centralized mechanism for timely replies before courts, forums

Srinagar, Aug 24: The government on Tuesday asked Department of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs to put a centralized mechanism for vetting the draft replies or stand of the Government through a single window system to avert any delay in filing the same before courts and forums.
“With a view to ensure submission of timely, well-considered and uniform stand/replies of the Government Departments/HoDs/Organizations/ Bodies/Societies etc. before respective adjudicating forums, there is an imminent requirement to consult the Department of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs for opinion and vetting of the draft replies/objections before filing the same in the Courts/Forums,” reads a government order.
Further, he said, the cases involving more than one department, the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs department shall finalize a consolidated reply and return the duly vetted consolidated reply or objections to one of the departments, to be decided by it, which shall file the timely reply on behalf of all the departments, unless there are specific directions from the Court and Forum for filing of separate replies by each department. In such a scenario also, the government said, the replies must be vetted through Law Department to ensure coherence and consistencies with each other.
“The Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs shall put in place a centralized mechanism within the department for vetting the draft replies/stand of the Government through a single window system to avert any delay in filing the response/stand,” the government said, adding, “Accordingly, all the Administrative Departments/HoDs/ Government Organizations/Statutory Bodies/Corporations etc. shall take note of the above instructions and follow the same in letter and spirit.” (GNS)