Speaker Advocates Apex Court Circuit Benches

New Delhi, Aug 24 (UNI) Criticising authorities' failure to curb litigation costs and ''reach justice'' to citizens, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee tonight advocated Circuit Benches of the Supreme Court to render justice ''closer as also cheaper'' for seekers.

Delivering a lecture to commemorate independent India's first speaker, Chatterjee voiced ''reverence and admiration'' for the way Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar had moulded parliamentary traditions.

The 9th G V Mavalankar Memorial Lecture, on a day the nation saw Chatterjee handle some of his flock become unruly, centred on Judiciary and the Legislature under the Constitution.

His twin focus was to drive home the need to make justice truly accessible to common man and caution judiciary-- once again-- not to get involved in issues ''coming within the executive domain''.

On justice, Chatterjee said that ''in spite of the gravity of the situation... nothing much is being done to reach justice to the common people, for reducing the costs of litigation, to minimise the difficulty of access to the courts by the common people.

''I must confess that I am a votary of setting up the Circuit Benches of our Apex Court at least in the different metropolitan cities and of suitable number of Benches of the State High Courts at appropriate places in the State concerned.'' Chatterjee indicated awareness of the courts' lukewarmness to the ideas.

''Such proposals are resisted by some sections within the Bench and the Bar claiming that such otherwise pro-people reforms would affect the integrity and unitary character of the Court and would lead to unsettled jurisdiction.'' But he went on that ''to me these reasons are unconvincing and unrealistic and, seen from the angle of the magnitude of the problem of arrears, the advantages for the people would far outweigh the perceived difficulties.

''More than anything else, such initiatives will help in taking our justice-delivery system at different levels closer as also cheaper for the people who are its real patrons and the intended beneficiaries.

''Institutions of governance have relevance for the people only when they serve the purpose for which they have been created.

''In a democratic set up, the space and role of every institution is expected to be clearly earmarked in the Constitution that creates it. It is in the effective discharge of the functions expected of it that it serves the people for whom the institutions are meant.

This can be accomplished without intruding into or trivialising the role of co-ordinate institutions or without undermining the importance of fundamental democratic processes.

''To my mind, when institutions succeed in functioning strictly within the domain assigned to each, not only do they grow in public esteem, but they also create the ideal conditions for the effective functioning of the entire system.'' UNI MJ RP RN1839