Rabilal Moitra, state Judicial and Law minister, said though it would take some time to set up these courts, the gram nyalayas will deal with both criminal and civil cases.

After the Centre enacted the Gram Nayalaya Act, 2008 which came into force from October 2, 2009, it had asked the state governments to prepare a year-wise plan for setting up such courts.

Moitra said this after a regional meeting of law ministers of four states — Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar — in Kolkata on Sunday which was chaired by Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily. With Jharkhand under President’s rule, the state was not represented by its law minister. The meeting where the ministers discussed the implementation of the 13th Finance Commission for improving the justice delivery system was also attended by chief justices of Calcutta, Patna, Ranchi and Cuttack.

After the meeting, Moily said it was an interactive sessions with Chief Justices and other judges and law ministers on various issues but no decision was taken in the meeting, as it was only an exercise to collect views and opinions on various issues.

The issues of e-projects, All India Judicial Services, progress of fast track courts, setting up of evening and morning courts were also discussed. It was the second regional meeting after the first meet at Guwahati in June.