Judges on contract to work in shifts

If all goes according to Law Minister Veerappa Moily's plan, it may just happen that the next time your case in court is to be decided, the clock may have well struck 12 midnight. In a vision statement presented to Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, the law ministry has proposed several radical ideas to overhaul the justice delivery system in India, including the appointment of 15,700 new judges to both trial as well as high courts; bringing down the pendency of cases from 15 years to three years; and operating courts in three shifts the last of which shall end at 12 midnight. According to the law ministry, the pendency of cases is expected to fall to the stated goal of three years by December 31, 2011. A status report on the goals achieved will be submitted to the prime minister on January 31, 2010. At present, 2.7 crore cases are pending before trial courts. The sanctioned strength of judges for these courts is 16,721. The high courts have a sanctioned strength of 886 judges, and are grappling to deal with a pendency of 40 lakh cases. The Supreme Court has around 53,000 cases pending. The measures recommended by the ministry to reduce pendency include reduction in cases filed by government departments and agencies; availing the services of law students from national law schools by appointing them as court managers; identifying and counselling judges granting regular adjournments; and reducing the time taken to fill up vacancies in courts. The vision statement also proposes the installation of video conferencing facilities in jails to do away with the need to physically produce the accused in court. In order to augment the number of judges, the government proposes appointing judges on contract for two years, for which a special recruitment drive will be undertaken to select 15,000 judges for trial courts from amongst retired judges, public prosecutors, government pleaders and senior advocates. They will each be required to dispose of at least 150 cases per year. For high courts, retired high court judges and senior advocates will be appointed on a yearly basis to conduct hearings in the evenings and on weekends. They will be asked to dispose of at least 2,500 cases per year. Ministry sources said the appointments are to be made within the next three to four months. The trial court judges will get a consolidated honourarium of at least Rs 50,000 per month, while high court judges will receive Rs 1 lakh per month. The ministry suggests the remuneration could be increased if found inadequate. The plan envisages an empowered management team at each high court headed by a senior judge of the high court to monitor and ensure time-bound progress. Ministry sources said since the appointments will be for a period of only two years, there is no plan to make large infrastructure expenditure. However, with the strength of judges being nearly doubled, the ministry has decided to hold courts in three shifts. A judge will be required to hold court for five hours and spend another three hours dictating judgments. The first shift could begin as early as 7 am. The subsequent two shifts could respectively begin at 2 pm and 7 pm. The government is concerned not only at the pendency, but also over frivolous and useless cases. The ministry suggests such cases originating from government departments must be eliminated. Moily said: "We propose to introduce a national litigation policy in which the government as the largest litigant will be transformed from a compulsive litigant to a responsible and reluctant litigant." Sources said the ministry had already sent a questionnaire to all government departments on the number and type of cases filed by them. It would analyse the data to reduce the number of cases. A cut-off could be fixed on the number of cases that a government department could file to prevent unnecessary litigation. A National Arrears Grid headed by a SC judge will monitor the implementation of the scheme and will give a report to the Prime Minister on January 31, 2010. The ambitious plan also envisages special training for the new judges. All judges will be provided with laptops. The ministry wants a statutory status for the Law Commission and introduction of a qualifying examination for enrolment of law graduates as advocates.

"Loved reading this piece by Jithendra.H.J?
Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!"

Join our Telegram group

Join our Whatsapp group