Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Ensure speedy justice, says SC judge

— Photo: K. Ananthan.

Judge of the Supreme Court Justice P.Sathasivam speaking at the workshop on Planning and Management for Timely Justice, organised by the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy, in the city on Friday.

Coimbatore: The judge of the Supreme Court, Justice P. Sathasivam, on Friday exhorted the sub-ordinate judicial officers to have a change in attitude and working pattern to ensure speedy justice with purity and quality.

He was speaking at the inaugural of the three-day workshop organised by the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy on “Planning and Management for Timely Justice” for presiding officers of courts in Coimbatore Zone comprising Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Erode, Karur, Krishnagiri, Nilgiris, Namakkal and Salem districts.

Mr. Justice Sathasivam said the country had 15,000 courts in over 2,500 complexes. As on date we had a backlog of 25 million cases.

High Courts across the country had 39.12 lakh cases while the Supreme Court itself had a backlog of 44,819 cases. Tamil Nadu as on December 31, 2008 had a backlog of 10,16,598 cases while Puducherry had 25,046 cases.

He pointed out that initiatives such as taking up long pending suits every Monday after court hours wherein counsels alone or along with the parties could reach a settlement had reduced 40 to 50 per cent of cases at Madras High Court.

The Supreme Court in 2008 had 70,352 new cases of which 67,459 were disposed of.

Mr. Justice Sathasivam also sought use of Information Technology in case and court management and case flow. He also stressed the need for e-connectivity between inter and intra courts for expediting the pace of work.

Of the 23.73 lakh criminal cases, the 1,380 Fast Track Courts had disposed of 19.43 lakh cases.

He also said that there was a need to enlarge the list of punishable offences that could be compounded wherein the sentences would be either one year or fine or both and said that a government decision on the recommendations of V.S. Malimath Committee was awaited.

He said that timely justice was the right of the litigant and speedy justice was an obligation on every judicial officer.

The move to take away the jurisdiction over money laundering, Company Law Amendment Act and taxation related ones to the tribunal would reduce pending cases but would narrow down the jurisdiction of High Courts.

He also informed the judicial officers that the Supreme Court directed the Union Government to set up an office to compile a report for pay revision of sub-ordinate judicial officers, while hearing a petition by Advocate Nariman. A decision would emerge soon.

Chief Justice of the Madras High Court H.L. Gokhale said that such meetings and workshops were basically for exchange of thoughts and make judiciary introspect. Every judge should have a system of stock taking to know the number of cases with him.

Urging the judicial officers to be alive to the responsibility, Mr. Justice Gokhale said that in districts judges should avoid lopsided distribution of cases to other judges.

He also said that magistrates not going for taking the dying declaration was unacceptable.

Judge of the Madras High Court and Portfolio judge for Coimbatore Justice P.K. Misra said that mounting backlog of cases before the courts had assumed alarming proportions and said that such workshops should evolve tools and technology for ensuring timely justice with quality and not just quantity.

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