Maintaining that there was a distinction between pendency and arrears of cases, Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia on Saturday indicated that he would soon appoint statistical experts to analyse different aspects of arrears so that a solution could be found.
Presiding over the national seminar on judicial reforms organised here by the Confederation of Indian Bar, Justice Kapadia said the arrears of cases must be understood in the true sense. He asserted that the current figure of three crore cases pending in various courts could not be considered arrears. Pointing out that 62 per cent of the cases were only one year old, he said “There is a distinction between pendency and arrears.”
The CJI said a special team of statistical officers would segregate cases on three fronts by classifying them as “sticky cases,” “subverted cases” and “process problem cases.” He called for use of modern technology to overcome the problems arising out of “process delay.”
Sticky cases were those which consumed considerable time, while subverted cases would be identified as those in which one of the parties tried to delay the proceedings and in the last category the delay occurred because of delay in issuing notice, etc. The CJI called for legislative, judicial and bar reforms saying that judicial reforms alone would not work. “You can't have a chariot running on one wheel.”
He pointed out that the government took away powers under Section 24 of the Criminal Procedure Code, under which Public Prosecutors were appointed in consultation with the Chief Justices of the High Courts. “Why the power was taken away I don't want to comment,” he said.
Poor settlement culture
One of the reasons for delay in disposal was the lack of settlement culture in the country, he said and added “We do not have specialist mediators to settle cases.” He said: “There has been a high GDP growth in the country, but the gap between the rich and the poor has also increased. We have to take steps to bring down the gap.”
Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam, senior advocate Harish Salve, senior advocate and CIB president P.H. Parekh and senior advocate Ravindra Shirvastava spoke.
The seminar was divided into various sessions, each led by a Supreme Court judge and there were deliberations on a variety of issues confronting the judiciary.
Mr. Parekh said the CIB would release the recommendations for follow-up action.
