India working relentlessly to eliminate corruption in all possible forms: Rijiju

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday told the eighth meeting of the Ministers of Justice of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states that it will be appropriate for India to continue to deal with legal assistance and legal relations on criminal and civil cases on bilateral basis.

He also said that India has been working relentlessly to eliminate corruption in all possible forms.

"The approach of the Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is of zero tolerance to corruption and black money," Rijiju asserted, according to a spokesperson of the Law Ministry.

India, the minister said, has a sound legal framework backed by strong institutional mechanism to deal with corruption.

An independent and effective judicial system with inherent constitutional powers to take up public interest litigations is another robust safeguard to deal with corruption he told the meet.

Referring to the SCO convention on legal assistance and legal relations in civil cases, Rijiju said, "When it comes to SCO convention on legal assistance and legal relations in civil cases, our views (are) not necessary for the SCO context as there are existing mechanism on the same issue on bilateral level.

"So it will be appropriate for India to continue to deal with legal assistance and legal relations on criminal and civil cases on bilateral basis," he said.

The ministers of law and justice, senior officials and experts from the ministries of law and justice of India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were to participate in the virtual meeting.