Legal Information Management and Briefing System (LIMBS) - An Overview

Legal Information Management and Briefing System (LIMBS) is a web-based application created by the Department of Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Law and Justice, to make the legal data available at one single point and streamline the procedure of litigation matters conducted on behalf of Union of India. This article gives a brief overview of the need for LIMBS.

Aspirants would find this article very helpful while preparing for the IAS Exam.

What is LIMBS?

1. LIMBS serves a wide range of requirements of various departments and administrative authorities for effective handling of court matters.
2. LIMBS being a repository of data gathers information relating to various departments, tribunals and categorizes them into groups of customized Management Information System (MIS) reports that can be accessed through a user-friendly drop-down menu.
3. This expedites different levels of administration by sending timely alerts for catalyzing actions by concerned functionaries in a given case.

Need for LIMBS

1. About 46% of the cases pending in various courts across the country are those in which the Government is a litigant. The executive power must be put to use to reduce further grievances of future litigants and the government must alter its image of being a compulsive litigant, as a petitioner or a respondent.
2. The court cases on behalf of the Union of India are taken care of by the concerned departments themselves and there is no unified system for collecting information with regard to pendency and status of these cases before various courts.
3. Though certain departments have made their own arrangements by developing systems for handling the cases related to their department, centralized data with effect to this is unavailable.
4. The National Litigation Policy of 2010 is ineffective to a large extent due to ambiguity.
5. LIMBS would help the government in achieving its objectives of “Minimum government, maximum governance”, “Digital India”, “Ease of doing business” and enhance the Transaction Capacity Governance of the government with an efficient legal framework for the speedy resolution of disputes.
6. LIMBS reduces the huge expenditures involved in resolving the cases, saves time and makes the working of different departments under a ministry, efficient.

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Benefits of LIMBS

• LIMB will help in organizing otherwise scattered Information at one single database and also create a professional base available for expert advice
• It will help in reducing government litigations.
• LIMBS provides low-cost web technology access to all the stakeholders involved in a court case in a coordinated way whereby it provides inputs that are available seamlessly on a 24×7 basis as per the defined access rules. Hence, it would be possible to know the various stages of a case and monitor its progress on a continuous basis through an elaborate set of user-friendly reports.
•  LIMBS aims to reduce financial burden, save time and bring efficiency in the working of various Departments of a Ministry. This will introduce transparency and a sense of ownership among various stakeholders during the life cycle of a court case.
• It will help authorities to take ‘data-driven decision-making and to evaluate the performance of various stakeholders and to conduct legal audits.

LIMBS is in its infancy. To make the working of the government, more coordinated and to achieve the desired results, various departments must submit the data as early as possible in a time-bound and integrated manner.

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