New Delhi: A bill to set up specialised commercial benches in all high courts and another to protect the interests of the creators of literary works, cinema, music
etc will be introduced in Parliament in its forthcoming Monsoon session, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said on Saturday.
"The bill to set up commercial court benches in high courts has already been examined by the standing parliamentary panel attached to Union Law ministry and will be introduced in Parliament and possibly will get passed in the Monsoon
session," Moily said.
"The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010 is also being examined by the relevant standing committee and probably in the Monsoon session we will introduce it in Parliament," he added.
The Law Minister revealed government plans to have the two bills introduced in the next session while addressing a function, organised here to mark the World Intellectual Property Day today. The function was organised by Asian Patent
Attorney`s Associate.
The function was attended, among others, by the Delhi High Court`s Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Additional Solicitor General AS Chandhiok and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
The Commercial Division of the High Court Bill, 2009 envisages setting up special benches in each high court to adjudicate matters pertaining to commercial disputes, while the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 intends to protect the
owners of literary, cinema and musical works and also makes special provisions to protect the interests of lyricists, composers and others, linked to film and television industry.
Moily also spoke on use of technology by the courts and commending the Delhi High Court work on this front, he said "by 2030 all our courts should become e-courts."
"We are providing all help from our side but it is up to the courts to take it forward," he added.
On the issue of implementation of judicial reforms, Moily lamented that the government was not getting requisite support from lawyers.
"Be it the issue of law education or filling up vacant posts in higher judiciary, I get the support of judges and the judiciary but unfortunately not from lawyers," he remarked.
Jaitley, in his address to the seminar to mark the occasion, cautioned the government against having "copycat laws as in the west" and called for the laws on intellectual property right (IPR), addressing the need of Indian economy
and society.
"Evolution of IPR laws is linked with growth of economy. It cannot be delinked. A dangerous thing is that we have copycat law as in the west... we must intertwine IPR laws with our country specific social conditions and affordability
of the people and not merely going by the international trend of the day," Jaitley said.
Jaitley also ruled that copyright laws continue to be
administered by the Ministry of Human Resource Development
(HRD) and said it must now go to the Department of Industrial
Policy and Promotion.
"Copyright law now goes beyond books and writings to
music, cinema, software and industrial products. All this is
completely alien to the Human Resource Development Ministry.
HRD is like a bull in china shop. We must remove the bull now
and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion must
govern the copyright law now," Jaitley said.
Speaking on the occasion, Abhishek Manu Singhvi
stressed upon the urgent need of increasing the number of
judges in general and specialist judges, in particular, to
deal with intellectual property right cases.
"I predict exponential increase in the IPR litigation.
We have to be prepared for it," he said.
PTI
