Monday, August 22 2005 17:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Government today (Aug 22, 2005) categorically told Parliament that 'Fatwas' issued by Islamic institutions do not have any legal backing and are not valid in the eye of law.

"The procedure to be followed by courts in criminal cases is set out in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Fatwas issued by Islamic institutions are not having any legal backing and they are not valid in the eye of the law," Union Law and Justice Minister H R Bharadwaj told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The answer came in response to a question on the procedures followed by jurisdictional courts when the Islamic institutions or even local Panchayats in issues Fatwas criminal cases at variance with the existing criminal laws.

Pendency: In order to reduce pendency of cases, Government has initiated a number of measures which include timely filling of vacancies of judges, increasing the judge strength, grouping of cases involving common questions of law, constitution of specialised benches, organising Lok Adalats and setting up of special tribunals, Minister of State for Law and Justice K Venkatapathy said.

There is no proposal, at present, with the Government to formulate new laws for judiciary, he said.

NGOs: 11 NGOs have been found indulging in not utilising the grant-in-aid for the purpose for which it was sanctioned. After due consideration of explanation received from them, further grant-in-aid to eight NGOs were discontinued whereas three NGOs have been blacklisted, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan said.