Govt making sincere attempts to draft laws in simple manner, Indian languages: PM Modi

Inaugurating the International Lawyers' Conference here, PM Modi flagged concerns about cyber terrorism and money laundering besides the use of artificial intelligence for destructive purposes.

Commenting on the legal system, PM Modi said the language used to write laws and in the judicial process plays a big role in ensuring justice. Pic: IANS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government is making sincere attempts to draft laws in a simple manner and in Indian languages to the maximum extent. Inaugurating the International Lawyers' Conference here, he also flagged concerns about cyber terrorism and money laundering besides the use of artificial intelligence for destructive purposes.

Modi said these dangers do not recognise borders and jurisdiction and called for collaborative efforts among legal frameworks of different countries to deal with them.

"When danger is global, then the manner to deal with it should also be global," he said.

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The prime minister cited the example of cooperation between air traffic control systems of all countries to ensure air travel and said preparing a global framework to deal with these dangers is not about one government or country.

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice of the United Kingdom Alex Chalk KC, Attorney General for India R Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Bar Council of India chairman and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra and others, including several judges of the apex court, were present at the event.

Commenting on the legal system, he said the language used to write laws and in the judicial process plays a big role in ensuring justice.

"We in the Indian government are thinking that law should be produced in two ways. One draft will be in the language you are used to," he said to the audience drawn from the legal field. "The second draft will be in a language which the country's common man can understand. He should consider the law his own." Modi said there had been a practice of drafting laws in a complex manner.

One of the aspects of justice delivery on which there is very little discussion is the language and the simplicity of law, the prime minister noted.

He said the government is trying to make laws simple and understandable to the common man but the system has been born and brought up in the same framework and he was trying to pull it out of that.

Modi said that he has a lot to do and a lot of time for it. "So I will keep doing it," he said.

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"We have made the first beginning in the Data Protection law," the prime minister said, referring to attempts to draft laws in simple language. He also welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to provide the operative part of a judgment to the litigant in his language.

Dubbing the Indian Penal Code and the Evidence Act as colonial-ear laws, the government had recently introduced the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill to replace the IPC, Evidence Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The Hindi renaming had evoked criticism from various quarters, including parties from Tamil Nadu.

Lauding the legal fraternity, he said the judiciary and the Bar have long been protectors of India's justice system and noted that they played a pivotal in India's Independence. The likes of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel were lawyers, the prime minister said.

The conference, he said, is happening at a time when India has witnessed several historic moments.

Referring to the passage of the women's reservation bill in Parliament, he said this will give new direction and energy to women-led development. He also spoke of the G20 Summit and the successful Chandrayaan mission.

With India working hard to achieve the goal of becoming a developed country by 2047, it requires the base of a strong and impartial justice system, he said. Impartial justice has a big role in the growing faith of the world in India, Modi added.

Speaking on alternate dispute resolution, the prime minister said with the increasing complexity of commercial transactions, the ADR mechanism has gained currency all over the world.

To systematise the informal tradition of dispute resolution in India, the government has enacted a law on mediation. Similarly, Lok Adalats are also playing a big role and they have settled nearly seven lakh cases in the last six years.

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