Parliament Watch: Omicron, women in judiciary, collegium recommendations, facial recognition and more [Day 4 roundup]

The fourth day of the winter session of Parliament saw responses from the government on issues including data on judicial vacancies, facial recognition at airports, the situation post the new Motor Vehicles Act, etc. .Discussions took place on concerns relating to COVID-19 virus and the new Omicron variant of the virus. 75 members put forth questions on the way forward to combat the new variant and stressed on the need for better governance to meet the new exigencies that could potentially arise from the third wave..To a question by BJP Member of Parliament (MP) Varun Gandhi on the use of facial-recognition technology at airports, the Civil Aviation Ministry replied in the Lok Sabha that the same has not started so far, but is being worked out in a phased manner at 4 airports - Pune, Kolkata, Varanasi, Vijayawada. .BJP MP Nihal Chand raised a question on the number of accidents on road and challans issued, to which the Road Transport Ministry revealed that there has been a drop in accidents and an increase in issuance of challans post the amended Motor Vehicle Act."The number of road accidents has decreased from 4,49,002 accidents in the calendar year 2019 to 3,66,138 accidents in the calendar year 2020 ... there is an increase of 291% in the number of traffic challans," the reply stated..Questions were raised by BJD MP Dr. Amit Patnaik on the inclusion of women in the judiciary and the accessibility of Courts to women and transgender persons.Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju responded by saying presently no woman is a Chief Justice of any High Court. The Law Minister in his statement also highlighted that the Union government has been implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for development of infrastructure facilities in district and subordinate courts by providing financial assistance to State governments / Union Territories. "The Registry of Supreme Court of India compiled the data on the status of judicial infrastructure which reveals that 26% court complexes do not have separate ladies toilet. Till date the Central Government has sanctioned ₹8709.77 crore... The Government has extended the above scheme for a further period of five years from 01.04.2021 to 31.03.2026, with a total budgetary outlay of Rs.9000 crores, including Central share of Rs.5307 crores... ₹47 crore have been approved for the construction of Toilet complexes in the District and Subordinate Courts," the response said..A question on pendency of cases was tabled by Vishambhar Prasad Nishad of the Samajwadi Party. The response said that data revealed there are 3,79,42,466 cases pending before the lower judiciary. In response to another question by Kirodi Lal Meena of the BJP on the number of public interest litigation (PIL) petitions filed in the Supreme Court and High Courts, it was stated that 541 PILs were filed till July 27 this year before the Supreme Court. .To a question posed by AAP MP Sushil Kumar Gupta about corruption in the judiciary, the Ministry revealed that 1,622 complaints about the judiciary including corruption related ones have been received via the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System. These were forward to the respective Chief Justices as per established in-house mechanisms..On a question about vacancies in the higher judiciary tabled by CPI(M) MP John Brittas, it was revealed that 126 proposals are pending before the Central government for appointment to various High Courts. Further, the breakdown of this 126 proposal is as under:- Number of proposals pending with Department of Justice (DoJ) which are yet to be sent to Supreme Court Collegium - 75- Number of proposals recommended by SC Collegium and pending with DoJ - 35- Number of proposals submitted to Prime Minister's Office - 3- Number of proposals submitted to Ministry of Law & Justice - 13