CJS’ meet

The conference, incidentally, was where CJI Thakur became emotional in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while lamenting the Centre’s inaction in increasing the number of Judges and improving infrastructure for the judiciary.

The major point of contention in the draft minutes was the proposal to involve private sector service providers in the ambitious ecourts Indian Judiciary Case Information System, a suggestion made by the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. While the job is being handled by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), there have been concerns about its track record in implementing the project in a seamless way.

Some senior Judges of the Supreme Court don’t favour involvement of the private sector, as they feel that data confidentiality could become an issue. Understanding court process, they feel, would also be difficult for the private sector.

Theviewofthepoliticalclasswasthatwith technology changing at a rapid pace, private service providers would do a much better job than NIC.

While the government, pushed by the Supreme Court, has committed itself to taking the ecourts projects to the lowest court, the pace of implementation has not enthused many state governments.

Another issue on which the judiciary and the government aren’t on the same page is whether a new committee of Judges should be constituted to deal with setting up commercial court divisions in high court, as well as establishing commercial courts in lower courts. While the government wants an existing committee headed by a Judge to look into the issue, there are some in the judiciary who want another high-powered committee for it.

The government is keen to expedite setting up as many such courts and benches as possible in the shortest time to improve the country’s standing in the ease of doing business list, while the judiciary favours a calibrated approach.

Sources said a series of discussions have been held between senior government functionaries and the higher judiciary to thrash out the differences and a final decision could be taken soon, with new Law Minister Ravi Shankarprasadhintingatbetterrelationswith the higher judiciary.