PM To Open Joint CMs-CJs Meet

New Delhi, Apr 6 (UNI) More judges, evening courts and fast track adjudication are among points expected to figure at a joint conference of Chief Ministers and High Courts Chief Justices on Sunday.

Centred on Administration of Justice on Fast Track, the event will be opened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and addressed among others by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and Law and Justice Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj.

An annual exercise, the conference will take stock of decisions taken last year-- March 2006-- and focus on strengthening and modernising the justice delivery system.

Officials say delegates will discuss augmenting and expanding infrastructure such as court buildings, equipment, software, human and other resources.

A centrally-sponsored scheme includes building court rooms and accommodation for judges and judicial officers of high courts and subordinate courts-- the expenditure shared equally by the state and central governments.

Data gathered by the First National Judicial Pay Commission shows that every state has been providing less than one per cent of the budget for subordinate judiciary-- except Delhi, which has provided 1.03 per cent.

The allocation during the Tenth Plan was Rs 700 crore-- 0.078 per cent of the total Rs 8,93,183 crore plan outlay. ''These allocations have been inadequate to meet the requirements of the judiciary,'' an official statement acknowledges.

With some 30 million cases pending in Indian courts, experts have long clamoured for hiring more judges.

Clearing such a huge backlog is estimated to require an immediate improvement in judge-people ratio and use of technology for speedy justice.

Filling high court vacancies has been another area of major concern.

On March 1, 2007, for instance, 597 HC judges were in place against 725 posts-- leaving 128 posts vacant.

Authorities have repeatedly spoken of filling all vacancies.

But that has not been attained even in respect of subordinate courts which have 2,710 vacancies against a working strength of 11,767.

On an average, a high court judge disposed of 2,374 cases and a subordinate court judge 1,346 cases in 2006.

At that rate, India will require 1,539 high court judges and 18,479 subordinate judges to clear the backlog in one year-- or 770 more high court judges and 9,239 more subordinate judges to do the job in two years.

Another way to ease the backlog as well as the resource requirement is to introduce double shifts in courts. As many as 30 evening courts in Gujarat are stated to have disposed of 16,153 cases in just two weeks starting December 14, 2006.

Alternative Dispute Resolution-- arbitration, negotiations, mediation and conciliation-- is another focal point. The mechanism is prevalent in many Western socieities and effective.

Indian experience, however, has not been encouraging, possibly because of concerns over such areas as delays and partiality and shortage of trained professionals.

Fast Track Courts is another option the authorities have been trying at sessions level. The term of 1,562 FTCs was extended for five years from April 1, 2005.

The delegates will discuss setting up FTCs as authorities believe huge arrears of civil cases cannot be wiped out by regular courts.

They also intend to take up modernising courts through computerisation and Information and Communication Technology.

Also on cards: -- Entrusting-- where required-- subordinate judicial officers' selection to high courts; -- Granting high courts financial autonomy; and -- Establishing permanent mechanisms to implement resolutions of the joint conference and the Chief Justices' Conference.

UNI