Union Law & Justice Minister, Mr D.V. Sadananada Gowda today inaugurated the National Seminar on ‘Law & Good Governance’ at Panjab University, Chandigarh today. The National Seminar was organised by the Department of Law, PU. PU Vice Chancellor, Prof Arun Kumar Grover welcomed the Union Minister for Law & Justice at the PU Campus.

       Mr Gowda said that the Laws regarding arbitration and commercial matters would be amended. The amendment would drastically amend the arbitration act and ease the investors in doing business in India. It will be certainly facilitate them. The bill would be brought to the Parliament in the next session, he added. He said that the amendment would have time bound disposal of commercial matters. We are working on it. So far the commercial cases are not dealt exclusively in lower courts and high courts, which delay the decisions, he further added.

Referring to the proposed amendment, Union Minister said that the Law Commission of India in its 246^th Report has recommended various amendments in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and taking into consideration those recommendations, the government has decided to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The proposed amendments in the Act would facilitate in achieving above mentioned objectives. India is committed to improve its legal framework to obviate in disposal of cases and proposed amendments are a step in this direction, he added.

Mr Gowda congratulated the Law department for organizing a seminar on the burning issue of good governance. He stated that transparency in the governance is need of the hour and the present government is taking every step for it.  He emphasized that we will make all the government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man. He declared that the present central government is working on the principle of “openness” and suggestions are invited from all corners on all government schemes, which are directly related to the users.  He invited the suggestions of the seminar so that those could be incorporated in the policy framing in the Central Government schemes. PU VC Prof Grover responded positively to the suggestion of the minister.

Coordinator of the seminar, Prof. Shalini Marwaha introduced the theme of the seminar. She highlighted principles of good governance, participation, transparency, consensus oriented, accountability, responsiveness, effective & efficient, equitable and inclusive and the rule of law. She also highlighted that how in the light of constitutional objective of ‘welfare state’, socio-economic transformation has taken place in the country through the process of law. 

Co-Coordinator of the seminar, Prof. Devinder Singh introduced Union Minister of Law & Justice, Mr D.V. Sadananda Gowda and counted his achievements, both as a Chief Minister of Karnataka and as a Union Minister.

        PU Dean, Faculty of Law Mr G.K. Chatrath highlighted the achievements of the department and mentioned that it is one of the oldest Law Departments in the country. He stated that it is a matter of pride that this department has privileged to have renowned alumnus e.g. three formers Chief Justices of India, two former State Governors, three Vice-Chancellors, enormous judges in the High Courts and District Courts and countless legal luminaries/dignitaries. 

Former M.P. and former PU Dean, Faculty of Law, Mr Satyapal Jain emphasized that once we are able to remove the bad governance the good governance will automatically prevail and it requires political will on the part of the government and determination on the part of citizenry to work in this direction. The present government at the centre is already working in this regard so to reach out to common man to ensure ‘Good Governance’.

The Department Chairperson Prof. Ranbir Kaur Bhangu extended the vote of thanks to the Chief Guest, dignitaries, participants, teachers, students and administrative staff for making this event a success.

        The Valedictory Function was held in evening at the Moot court Hall of the Department, where Justice K. Kannan delivered the valedictory address.  He said that reason behind holding such seminar is failure in providing social, economic and political justice. He spoke about honour killing, casteism and untouchability. He opined that Information Technology Act has played commendable role in enhancing transparency and accountability and RTI is a potent weapon for good governance.

Earlier, Prof. Nishtha Jaswal extended warm welcome to the Judge, Punjab & Haryana High Court, Mr Justice K. Kannan, who was Chief Guest of the function. Dr. Jyoti Rattan presented the report of the seminar mentioning that more than 60 papers from all over India were presented where a number of critical issues relating to main theme “Law & Good Governance” were discussed.  As a result of brain storming sessions a number of fruitful suggestions were made which if put into practice by the competent authorities would improve the situation for the better.   

Prof. Ranbir Kaur Bhangu presented the vote of thanks.