HC CJ sends proposal to increase the strength of judges

Chennai, Nov 26 (UNI) Madras High Court Chief Justice A P Shah has sent a proposal to the Centre to increase the sanctioned strength of the judges from the present 49 to 69.

The Chief Justice disclosed this while addressing the Madras High Court Advocates Association, the Madras Bar Association, Women Lawyers Association and Law Association on the occasion of the 'Law Day' at the High Court campus.

He said as per the statistics available with the Court Registry, a total of 2,05,194 main cases and 2,15,736 miscellaneous cases were pending as on September 30, 2007 in the High Court.

To clear the backlog and ensure speedy disposal of the cases, Mr Shah said, he had recently sent a proposal to the Centre to increase the strength.

He said High Courts of Bombay, Delhi, Allahabad and Kerala had also submitted their proposals for increasing the strength of the judges of respective courts and the proposals were endorsed by the Chief Justice of India and they secured the additional strength.

Only the Madras High Court could not get the additional strength immediately, Justice Shah said.

The High Court had a proposal to establish a legal research cell and a memory bank at the Judicial Academy in the city, the Chief Justice said.

He later distributed ''T S Ramanatha Iyer Awards'' to the lawyers, who have devoted their service to legal aid cell.

Justice P K Misra administered the ''Law Day'' oath to the lawyers.

UNI