MARKING A MILESTONE: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Supreme Court Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal releasing a souvenir at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh on Saturday. Punjab Governor Gen. S.F. Rodrigues and Union Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj are also seen. _ PHOTO: PTI

CHANDIGARH: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Saturday described the judiciary as a "partner in national development" and emphasised the need for delivering speedy justice.

Inaugurating the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Punjab and Haryana High Court here, Mr. Kalam said that during the last five decades the High Court had dealt with many critical cases of national importance and provided landmark judgments.

On the need to implement nationally relevant and important projects in a time-bound manner and recognising that the Courts were the guardians to protect the projects from the onslaught of machinations of unscrupulous individuals or groups, it must be ensured that "honest implementations are not impeded by unsustainable or motivated litigations or honest persons vilified through public glare based on such filings," he said. There was an enormous responsibility on the shoulders of the courts and the nation's development was equally dependent on the dynamism and the innovativeness of the judicial system. It must be ensured that no justice was delayed and the situation existing today was remedied. He also expressed concern that the human rights of many persons were being violated through charges made by certain groups and cases filed which took many years to come to a final decision.

He also reiterated that transparency started from home and the children could definitely bring a change in making India a transparent and proud nation.

Expressing concern over delays in justice, Mr. Kalam pointed out that the number of cases pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court was around 2,40,000 and in the subordinate courts around 11.8 lakhs. On an average more than three per cent of the population was affected by the prolonged litigation. Particularly, rural people's quality of life got affected by the enormity of litigation. This scenario could be corrected only through a society that had a good value system, concern for others and good governance by people who themselves were beacons of virtue and who could be emulated as role models.

Listing inadequate number of courts and judicial officers, officers not equipped to tackle cases involving specialised knowledge, "dilatory tactics by litigants and their lawyers'' and the role of administrative staff of the courts as the causes for delay, he suggested the disputes should be resolved through "a human touch at the grassroots level such as the panchayats without the influence of political parties and the related biases vis-à-vis individual and families to reduce the load in our courts.''

Age analysis of cases

He exhorted the judges to go in for a systematic analysis of the "age" of the pending cases in the High Court and in the subordinate courts to find cases which are pending for five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 30 years and so on. "On further examination of the cases we may find that the parties who are involved in the litigation of very old cases are either not there or they may not be interested in pursuing the case any more. If this process is systematically done, at least 25 to 30 per cent of the total pending cases can be closed in one go.'' He also suggested the grouping of cases in which the same or similar law points were involved so that these could be placed before a particular judge or a bench for disposal. The combined process of age analysis and grouping would definitely result in the disposal of a large number of pending cases.

While stating that a large percentage of pending cases may belong to different government departments, he called for a special mechanism for settling cases pertaining to each government department for a period of six months to one year. This would enable fast clearance of all the pending cases pertaining to one department. Lok Adalats would also help reduce the number of pending cases at the District and High Court level in Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

The President also suggested the creation of a `Judiciary Programme Management Group' with an empowered team of IT for reducing the pendency of cases in Punjab and Haryana in a time-bound manner. This programme management group must have the authority to create mobile pendency clearance courts, which can move to various districts and blocks for hearing the cases in the village itself and provide speedy justice, he added.

He also called for innovative tools for the settlement of disputes and the appointment of trained arbitrators who could act with speed and help in settling the disputes without jeopardising the genuine interest of the concerned parties.

e-judiciary

While appreciating that the judgments of the Supreme Court and some High Courts including the Punjab and Haryana High Court were now available on the net, Mr. Kalam said this must be extended to the subordinate courts also. He also emphasised the need for a total e-judiciary system to reduce the misery of the litigants. From the time the case is registered, till it is disposed of with judgment, the entire processing must take place electronically. This will enable easy search, retrieval, grouping, information processing, judicial record processing and disposal of the cases in a transparent manner and enable quicker disposal of cases. It would also provide information in real time to the litigants.

Chief Justice of India Y.K.Sabharwal emphasised the need to discourage frivolous litigation and called for the adoption of a "zero vacancy'' and "no adjournment'' culture.

Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj, Punjab Governor S.F. Rodrigues, Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai, Supreme Court Judge Ashok Bhan and Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court D.K. Jain also spoke. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Rajender Kaur Bhattal, were present.

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