BackPM Modi tells state govts to build infra facilities, meet needs of judiciary
CJI Dattu pushes for financial autonomy of judiciary at meeting of chief justices of high courts, chief ministers
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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged state governments to ensure that infrastructure facilities and requirements for the judiciary were met, in keeping with the trend noted in the first full budget of this Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance government to move towards a more federal structure with greater participation of the states.
Addressing a gathering of judges from the Supreme Court, high courts and lower courts in Delhi and the chief ministers of different states, Modi said ₹ 9,749 crore was released directly to the states by the 14th Finance Commission specifically earmarked for the judiciary to meet their requirements.
Modi was inaugurating a joint conference of chief justices of high courts and chief ministers of states aimed at understanding and resolving problems with the justice delivery system in the country.
Several issues were discussed in the conference, which concluded on Sunday following a two-day “in-house meeting" of the chief justices of various high courts with the Chief Justice of India, H.L. Dattu, including a uniform policy for the selection of judges to the higher judiciary. While the Parliament recently passed the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, scrapping the collegium system, where judges appointed judges, there is no mention of selection criteria in this law. Dattu said it was decided that a panel of apex court judges set up by the Chief Justice of India will analyse the viability of a judicial service commission, which could lay down a uniform selection criteria for appointments.
Speaking at the inauguration of the joint conference of chief justices of high courts and chief ministers, Dattu said financial autonomy of the judiciary is necessary for the proper development of the legal system.
He also talked about making the judiciary a financially viable option to ensure participation from the younger generation.
The judge-to-population ratio stands at one judge for 61,865 citizens, which affects effective justice administration and dealing with pendency, he said.
Reviving the debate on increasing tribunalization, Modi urged the judiciary to discuss whether tribunals were actually helpful in reducing pendency. “I would want that the senior judges of the Supreme Court sit and discuss whether tribunals help in delivering justice, or if it creates an additional barrier, whether so many tribunals are required. Because tribunals take up a lot of budgetary allocation. If the budget for tribunals goes to courts, courts will become more powerful," he said. He said such discussion shouldn’t be adversarial, but cooperative.
He added that justice delivery shouldn’t be perception-driven. Further, he said, the move to bring the use of technology in justice administration would bring a qualitative change in the system. He also said removing obsolete laws was important to make it easier for people to understand the legal process. The cabinet has approved the removal of 700 laws from the statute books. Another 1,700 are under consideration for removal, he said.
The focus of the conference is to reduce pendency of litigation at all levels of the judiciary. The lower courts in the country have 26.4 million pending cases while the high courts have 4.2 million. The apex court alone, as the final court in the country, had 61,300 pending cases as on 1 March.
The last such conference, which is a biennial affair, was held on 7 April 2013.
“It’s the most sensible thing I have heard. It’s a welcome statement. There’s no national policy on tribunals. They’re just created on an ad hoc basis. Many times they serve as post retirement services for IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officials and some judges. There is huge pendency in the tribunals. There is no specialization. Some benches of tribunals, like the national green tribunal, weren’t working. It requires to be looked at," said lawyer Arvind Datar, who represented the Madras Bar Association, petitioner in the case where the apex court struck down the National Tax Tribunal
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