By Diksha-
The Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the member states of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Friday that 25,00,000 virtual hearings took place in the Indian Courts during the Covid-19 pandemic; out of which 9,000 hearings pertained to the Supreme Court alone.
He highlighted the initiative of the Indian Government to provide easy and affordable justice to all citizens.
India hosted the Seventh Meeting of Ministers of Justice of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation where Prasad praised the Tele-laws service initiative of 2017 in India whereby 3.44 lakhs free legal consultations have been provided to the poor and under-privileged in the country through video-conferencing.
Alongwith India represented by Prasad, Tajikistan Justice minister- MK Ashriyon; Justice minister of China- Tang Yijun; Russian Justice minister- K. A. Chuichenko; Justice minister of Kyrgyz Republic- M.T. Dzhamankulov; Uzbekistan Justice Minister- RK Davletov; and representative of the Ministry of Law and Justice of Pakistan- Ambreen Abbasi were also present in the meeting.
Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice delivered the keynote address and closing remarks in the meeting.
In this seventh session, the member states discussed on areas of cooperation.
There was emphasis on mutual exchange of legal information on counteraction on the coronavirus spread across the world, need for cooperation in the Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanism, and several other topics.