Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday assured Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar that the government would make its share of “contribution” to help fulfil his “resolve” to reduce the burden on the judiciary and deal with the high number of pending cases.
The Prime Minister made the pledge after observing the “pain” in Justice Khehar’s speech in which he lamented the pendency of cases in the higher and lower courts.
Pilgrimage site
The two dignitaries were speaking at the closing ceremony of the 150th anniversary celebration of the Allahabad High Court. The Prime Minister described the Allahabad High Court as the ‘Tirtha Kshetra’ or pilgrimage site for the Indian judiciary.
In his address, which he themed as his “ dil ki baat ,” Mr. Khehar spoke about the high backlog of pending cases and the urgency to step up and tackle them.
Referring to the Allahabad High Court, he said that till January 1, it had nine lakh pending cases, including two lakh in the Lucknow Bench of the court. But to tackle these, the court had only 85 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 160. “The delivery of justice” was “handicapped” due to “shortage of judges,” the CJI said.
Justice Khehar also mentioned certain steps he was taking to reduce the burden on the judiciary. He said three Constitution Benches of the Supreme Court would sit during the summer vacation to help reduce the number of pending cases.
The CJI also requested the judges to consider sitting in courts for five days during vacation. That way a minimum of 10 cases would be heard each day. Also, thousands of small matters like matrimonial disputes, land disputes and other such cases could be settled through Lok Adalats and mediation.
Referring to the Allahabad High Court, the CJI said that if every judge decided to work for five extra days they would be able to dispose of an additional 25 cases per day. He asked whether the judiciary was ready for such a “challenge”.
Use of technology
Mr. Modi lauded Justice Khehar’s resolve to tackle the pendency of cases and his stress on simplification of legal work through use of technology.
The Prime Minister advocated the use of technology and digitalisation in the judicial system to overcome the burden of cases and obsolete laws.
Mr. Modi also urged people involved with the start-up sector to innovate on aspects where technology could help the judiciary.
