Rajya Sabha Passes Family Courts Bill Amid Opposition Protest

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022 by voice vote amid protest from opposition members.

The Bill validates family courts in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland with retrospective effect.

Responding to the discussion over the bill, Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, stressed the need to pass the law by looking at the list of pending cases.

''At present, there are 715 family courts in the country with more than 11 lakh cases pending and the government is insisting on opening at least one family court in every district so that the cases can be disposed of quickly,'' Rijiju added.

As per the Family Court Act of 1984, it is mandatory for the state government to establish a family court in every city or town having a population of at least 10 lakhs.

The Minister further informed the house that the Central Government has already asked judicial officers to give importance to family matters.

Further while targeting the opposition members, Rijiju said that he wanted to discuss this important bill in detail but it was not possible because of the way the opposition, especially the Congress members behaved.

As soon as the bill was passed, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh adjourned the proceedings of the House for the day.

Notably, there are many types of courts in our country and one of them is the Family Court which deals with family disputes.

Earlier, all civil courts used to hear such cases. However, in the year 1984, the Government of India introduced Family Courts Act which created a separate court to settle such family disputes.

The purpose of this was to ensure speedy justice in such cases.

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