PM to open CMs, CJs' conference on fast track justice

New Delhi, Apr 5 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate a joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts to be held here on Sunday on the theme 'Administration of Justice on Fast Track'.

Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and Minister of Law and Justice, H R Bhardwaj will also address the conference.

Besides taking stock of the implementation of various decisions taken at the previous such conferences held on March 11, 2006, the conference will focus on strengthening and modernisation of the system of delivering justice.

It will discuss augmentation and expansion of infrastructure of the courts such as buildings, equipment, software knowledge, resources including human resources facility.

Another issue to figure at the Conference is enhancement of the strength of judges and disposal of arrears in courts.

There are about 2.85 crore cases, both civil and criminal, pending in high courts and subordinate courts across the country.

To clear the average backlog would require an immediate improvement in judge-population ratio by increasing the number of judges as well as introduction of new technology to help in speedy justice.

The sanctioned strength of judges of the High Courts was 725 and working strength was 597 as on March 1, 1997, leaving 128 vacancies.

Similarly, with 11,767 working strength of Subordinate Judges there were 2710 vacancies.

Based on the disposal of cases in 2006, average disposal per judge comes to 2374 cases in High Courts and 1346 cases in Subordinate Courts.

Applying this average, the country would require 1539 High Court Judges and 18,479 Subordinate Judges to clear the backlog in one year. The requirement would come down to 770 more High Court Judges and 9,239 more Subordinate judges if the arrears alone have to be cleared in the next two years.

Introduction of Alternate Distribution Redressal (ADR) mechanism is another important agenda of the Conference. In many countries such as the United States, ADR mechanism by which disputes were resolved by negotiations, the success rate was very high.

The Conference will discuss the setting up of the Fast Track Courts at the earliest keeping in view the performance of the existing Fast Track Courts and their contribution made in clearing the backlog of cases as it was felt that huge arrears of civil cases could not be wiped out by regular courts.

UNI