NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has come under the Cabinet Secretariat's scrutiny for failing to adequately update details of legal cases on the government's litigation monitoring portal.
After the gaps were flagged by the Cabinet Secretariat, the ministry has swung into action and asked its divisions, subordinate offices and other establishments to urgently upload and verify details of their pending cases, particularly with regard to pendency of court or arbitration cases.
MoHUA will also need to submit a one-time certificate to the Department of Legal Affairs (DoLA) confirming that all old and ongoing cases have been uploaded and updated on the portal -- Legal Information Management and Briefing System (LIMBS), a web-based application for monitoring of all court cases in which the Union of India is a party.
Highlighting the long-standing concerns over the delay in putting updates to the portal, the economic advisor to MoHUA, Dinesh Kapila, recently wrote to senior officials of the ministry and heads of bodies functioning under its administrative control, asking them to personally oversee the correction and posting of entries related to court cases.
“Cabinet Secretariat has observed that LIMBS portal has not been updated by many ministries or departments, specifically with respect to old pending court/arbitration cases. Accordingly, it has been requested to provide a ‘One-time Certificate’ to D/o Legal Affairs confirming that all legacy cases have been uploaded to the LIMBS portal,” the communiqué read.
In a move aimed at strengthening accountability, enhancing transparency in government functioning and promoting an objective approach to administrative evaluation, the Cabinet Secretariat had introduced Administrative Score Cards (ASCs) for all central ministries and departments, linking performance to measurable outcomes, including how efficiently they handle litigation.
The framework assigns a total of 100 marks to each ministry based on a set of quantifiable parameters. A key component, labelled litigation, which requires regular updation or correction of data related to court cases, evaluates departments on their ability to reduce pending court and arbitration cases and ensure timely filing of counter-affidavits within 30 days.
In the letter, Kapila also urged the names of liaison officers from each division or office responsible for updating or correcting cases on the portal to the legal cell of the ministry.
“I would request you to take personal interest in updation and correction of data/entries of court cases related with your Division/Office on LIMBS portal, specifically with respect to old pending court/arbitration cases and provide a requisite onetime certificate accordingly … urgently as Cabinet Secretariat is pressing hard for it,” his note stated.