CJ says appointments of HC Judges reaching saturation point

New Delhi, Nov 26 (UNI) Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal today claimed that the process of filling up the vacancies of High Court judges in the country is approaching a saturation point.

Justice Sabharwal also revealed that about 2.53 crore cases are pending in lower courts of the country and during the last one year the backlog of these pending cases has come down at least by 3 lakh.

Addressing the Law Day function on the Supreme Court lawns this afternoon, he also revealed that a new beginning has been made by starting evening courts in the district of Gujrat. These evening courts have already decided 5,000 small cases within two weeks. The evening courts were started on November 14 this year to mark the birthday of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Moreover, these evening courts would be gradually started in the entire country if this experiment succeeds. Such courts will reduce the burden of about 15,000 judicial officers in the country.

Justice Sabharwal, while delivering his last Law Day address, emphasised the need for allround efforts to reduce the pendency of cases.

He also made it clear that diplomacy has no place in judiciary and emphasised the need for extensive Judges Training Programme and also for building up national infrastructure.

Earlier there was a confrontation between Union Law Minister H R Bharadwaj and Supreme Court Bar Association President M N Krishnamani when the latter made a reference to the corruption in the judiciary citing the statement made by two former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court.

Mr Bharadwaj, in his speech took exceptions to the remarks made by Mr Krishnamani on the issue of corruption and said such statements demoralise the judiaciary which is otherwise doing a commendable job and enjoyed respect among the masses.

Chief Justice Sabharwal also described the Indian Constitution as the best and the greatest document in the world and said Article 14 to Article 32 had given fundamental rights to the citizens of the country and also the right to approach the highest court of the land in case of violation of these rights.

He, further, laid emphasis on improving the working condition of subordinate courts located in the remote corners of the country.

The function was attended by a host of dignataries including the Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Venkatpathy, Justice K G Balakrishnan, who will succeed Justice Sabharwal as the next Chief Justice of India and by the present and former judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court among others.

UNI AKS/SC SSC RP RK1918