Posts
Source: Times of India dated 8th April 2013
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the“horrific tragedy of grapevine Delhi” compelled an urgent introspection about laws and the justice delivery system,law minister Ashwani Kumar said the incident made people question the “credibility of our criminal justice system”.
Both the PM and the law minister referred to the over three crore pending cases and said increasing the number of courts and judges could help increase people’s access to justice and reduce delays and arrears in the justice delivery system.
They were speaking at a conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts which was being held after a gap of four years. The last such conference, described by thePM andChief Justice Altamas Kabir as an ideal forum to discuss improvements in justice delivery system mechanisms, was held in 2009 and it was discontinued during the tenure of S H Kapadia as CJI. Justice Kabir said the dialogue process between the executive and the judiciary, which was disrupted, needed to be re-established as the three organs of governance had a duty under the Constitution to provide justice to people.
But he appeared to remind the PM and the law minister that improving the justice delivery system was not all about establishing morecourts and appointing more judges. “The sanctioned strength of the Allahabad high court is 160 judges but it is functioning with 87 judges.The reason for non-appointment of more judges to the HC was lackof supportinfrastructure,” hesaid.
“So we need to set up support infrastructure. It does not mean building only. Support infrastructure means support staff. When a court is set up, apart from the presiding officer, there is a need for appointing several other officers. These are things which most people in the executive have no idea about,” Justice Kabir said.
The PM termed the current ratio of 15.5 judges per million population as “grossly inadequate” and said the states must take initiative to appoint more judges. “On behalf of the central government, I would like to assure this august gathering that we will increase appropriately the quantum of funding for the scheme under which we provide support to the state governments for the creation of infrastructure for subordinate judiciary,” Singh said. He stressed the importance of gram nyayalayas, alternativedispute redressal mechanisms and legal aid services in speeding the justice delivery mechanism.But law minister presented a grim picture of the functioning of rural courts.
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the“horrific tragedy of grapevine Delhi” compelled an urgent introspection about laws and the justice delivery system,law minister Ashwani Kumar said the incident made people question the “credibility of our criminal justice system”.
Both the PM and the law minister referred to the over three crore pending cases and said increasing the number of courts and judges could help increase people’s access to justice and reduce delays and arrears in the justice delivery system.
They were speaking at a conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts which was being held after a gap of four years. The last such conference, described by thePM andChief Justice Altamas Kabir as an ideal forum to discuss improvements in justice delivery system mechanisms, was held in 2009 and it was discontinued during the tenure of S H Kapadia as CJI. Justice Kabir said the dialogue process between the executive and the judiciary, which was disrupted, needed to be re-established as the three organs of governance had a duty under the Constitution to provide justice to people.
But he appeared to remind the PM and the law minister that improving the justice delivery system was not all about establishing morecourts and appointing more judges. “The sanctioned strength of the Allahabad high court is 160 judges but it is functioning with 87 judges.The reason for non-appointment of more judges to the HC was lackof supportinfrastructure,” hesaid.
“So we need to set up support infrastructure. It does not mean building only. Support infrastructure means support staff. When a court is set up, apart from the presiding officer, there is a need for appointing several other officers. These are things which most people in the executive have no idea about,” Justice Kabir said.
The PM termed the current ratio of 15.5 judges per million population as “grossly inadequate” and said the states must take initiative to appoint more judges. “On behalf of the central government, I would like to assure this august gathering that we will increase appropriately the quantum of funding for the scheme under which we provide support to the state governments for the creation of infrastructure for subordinate judiciary,” Singh said. He stressed the importance of gram nyayalayas, alternativedispute redressal mechanisms and legal aid services in speeding the justice delivery mechanism.But law minister presented a grim picture of the functioning of rural courts.
No comments:
Post a Comment