‘Rising pendency due to vacancies, adjournments’
NEW DELHI : President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday blamed vacancies, particularly in subordinate courts, and the culture of seeking adjournments by lawyers for rising pendency of cases and consequent delays in disposal of court cases in India.
The President was speaking at the inaugural function of National Conference on - Technology, Training and Infrastructure: Keys to speedy justice and the Changing face of Legal education in India - organised by the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association in New Delhi.
Kovind said, there was “a backlog of 3.3 crore cases in various courts of the country. Of these, 2.84 crore cases are in the subordinate courts. Another 43 lakh are in the High Courts and about 58,000 in the Supreme Court”.
The President also said the tendency by the government and the government agencies to file cases and appeals contribute to the problem. However, corrective steps are being taken by the government.
“The threshold for filing appeals in Supreme Court by the government has been increased from ₹25 lakh to 1 crore” and that’s laudable, said the president.
The President also called for rejuvenation of law universities and suggested recognising private law universities as “institutes of eminence” by the Bar Council of India.
Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra stressed on the need to improve the judicial infrastructure in the country.
“Infrastructure remains a primary concern. Judicial infrastructure for bar and litigants is the backbone of the justice delivery system. And fiscal constraint should not be an excuse for the same,” said Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA, DIPAK MISRA STRESSED ON THE NEED TO IMPROVE THE JUDICIAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE COUNTRY