Govt shouldn’t overload SC with cases, says AG

NEW DELHI: The government should not “overload” the Supreme Court with “endless statutory appeals”, said Attorney General R Venkatramani on Saturday during the 73rd Constitution Day celebrations organised by the Supreme Court.

The top law officer said: “It is important that the government stops overloading the (Supreme) Court with endless statutory appeals alongside a seamless and huge flow of cases from high courts.” He opposed the tendency of bringing every appeal against a high court order to the top court as he said: “The conversion of Supreme Court into a small causes court must stop.” The debate on whether a National Court of Appeals should be set up to offload the SC of a huge bulk of appeals filed by the government against high court orders is pending consideration with a Constitution Bench of the top court.

The AG said: “Whether we keep engaging our thoughts on National Court of Appeal or not, we need to strengthen our high courts and also decongest them which alone can stem the flow of work in the Supreme Court.”

This was possible, Venkatramani said, if the government charts the road map to adopt a litigation policy. “For long, governments have been talking about litigation policy. There is no reason why this policy cannot emerge.every department must have a resolution wing with competent, legal equipment to resolve fact-based issues,”he said.