Judiciary ill equipped to dispense justice : CJI

Imphal, Apr 30 (UNI) Chief Justice of India Justice Y K Sabharwal today appealed to all those working in the judiciary to make it a noble profession.

''We should do what we preach,'' he said while speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the high court complex here.

''In a country with over a billion population, there are just about 13,000 judges which has caused delay in delivering justice,'' he rued. The judiciary has little resources and there will be problems and more litigations if the people at the lowest rung were not looked after, he maintained.

The biggest litigant in the country, according to him, was the government with the number of cases increasing throughout the country.

In Gauhati High Court alone, there were about 61,800 pending cases while in the lower courts the number was about 2.52 lakhs.

He urged the lawyers to work for the poor. ''Fees should not be sole criterion for taking up cases,'' he opined.

Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh presented a memento to the visiting judges and informed that the new high court complex will be completed with 24 months.

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