Maharashtra will have courts in each taluka: Chief Justice

Mumbai, July 22 (UNI) Maharashtra will soon become the first state in the country to have courts in each of its 357 talukas, Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Swatantra Kumar said here today.

''The State of Maharashtra has a blueprint ready to establish courts in every taluka,'' the Chief Justice said while speaking at a function organised to open the Judge's Lounge-cum-Conference Room.

The Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan ianugurated the facility at the High Court Annexe building.

Kumar said as part of this exercise, courts will be set up in 53 talukas of the state during the year. At present, some 89 talukas in the State do not have court complexes.

In order to reduce the heavy backlog of cases, particulary in the lower courts, the High Court had proposed the government to create 350 new posts of judges, which has recently got the nod from the government. These posts will be added in the current and next financial year.

''In the first phase, 175 posts shall be added in this financial year and the remaining 175 posts in the next financial year,'' he said.

According to the Union Home Ministry figures, till May this year, there were 4.1 million cases pending with the subordinate courts in the state. Maharashtra also has the highest number of undertrials, 15,784 in the country.

Observing that in India, the judge-population ratio was quite low in comparison to the developed countries, Chief Justice Balakrishnan stressed the need for raising the number of judges throughout the country.

''In developed countries, there were more than 100 judges for a million, whereas India has 10 or 11,'' he noted.

''Public, in general, rebuke the judicial system for pendency of cases but is not aware of the lack of number of judges or other facilities. We need more funds for clearing the arrears (pending cases). Both the Centre and the States should provide funds for this work,'' he added.

He emphasised that the judiciary should make use of technology for the speedy delivery of justice.

The newly-inaugurated conference lounge would help in conducting video conferencing with Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad and even with tribal areas such as Gadchiroli.

Union Law Minister Mr Hansraj Bharadwaj said in view of the ever increasing number of cases in the various courts, the Union Government was also committed to raising the number of judges in the High Courts.

Stating that his government had allocated Rs 28 crore for Computerisation in the High Court, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said '' We will do everything for the judicial system to reach the downtrodden,'' he said.

UNI