Judges under public eye

Judges in the state have been asked to introspect and come out with a plan to dispose of the large number of pending cases. What's more, they will be answerable to the public. In a bid to make the judiciary more accountable, the high court on Saturday inaugurated a state-level judicial officers' review meet for the preparation of an action plan. Judges from the state will now be required to prepare a report of how they will clear pending cases. These will be webcast from Monday, and act as a `judicial balance sheet for public audit'. "We have to make ourselves voluntarily accountable to the public and assess ourselves. Adopt your own action plan," chief justice P D Dinakaran told the delegates at the meet. Drawing a parallel to the importance of eyelids, which are usually unseen, he said the audit must act like a mirror. "Judicial officers must anticipate challenges. Device a method and fix a time for disposing of cases," he added. Sound recognition software in HC High court chief justice P D Dinakaran said the number of pending cases is affecting trust placed on the judiciary. Noting that there is a shortage of stenographers, he urged the chief minister to help introduce Dragon NaturallySpeaking -- a speech recognition software -- in the high court. B S Yeddyurappa, favouring periodic audits to increase efficiency of the judiciary, promised that the software will be given to all courts at a total cost of Rs 2.5 crore. 11 lakh pending cases Justice V Gopala Gowda said there are 5,62,944 civil and 5,42,047 criminal cases pending in the state's courts -- a total of 11,04,991 cases in 29 districts. He said cases pending for 10-20 years should be disposed of by December 2009, and those pending for 5-7 years by 2010. Special attention should be given to divorce, domestic abuse and child rights issues.

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