Conversion of SC into small causal court must stop: R Venkataramani

New Delhi, Nov 26: Attorney General for India R Venkataramani on Saturday said that the Centre should stop overloading the Supreme Court with endless statutory appeals alongside seamless and huge flow of cases from high courts.

"It is important that the government stops overloading the Supreme Court with endless statutory appeals alongside seamless and huge flow of cases from high courts. The conversion of the Supreme Court into a small causal court must stop," PTI quoted him as saying. He added that the High Court should also be decongested and every department must have a resolution wing with competent and independent legal equipment to resolve facts based issues.

"Only complex matters with legal issues which cannot be resolved must go for institutional resolution. I am confident the government will give an ear to an earnest attorney general to draw a quick roadmap," Venkataramani said at the event also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.

The attorney general said family courts needed to become more comfortable and that there was a need for a settlement commission when it came to property law and more. "Rule of law is a non-violent revolution. More room for rule of law reduces violence. I look forward to a day when the west may come learning from us on justice standards. Colonialism of minds and people would be free," he said.

Essential to make process of litigation citizen centric, technology must be augmented: CJI

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday said technology must be augmented with institutional reforms to resolve issues of access to justice, and it is essential to simplify the litigation process and make it "citizen centric".

"We have been adopting technology to improve the working of courts. It is of supreme importance and necessity that courts are remodelled to reach out to people instead of people reaching out to courts in their quest for justice," the news agency quoted CJI as saying.

"To ensure that courts reach out to people, it is essential that the process of litigation is simplified and made citizen centric," he said.

Justice Chandrachud said though the judiciary's engagement with technology gained prevalence during the COVID-19 pandemic, "we must not dismantle the infrastructure but built upon it". "I will earnestly request the chief justices of high courts to ensure that the technological infrastructure, on which public funds have been spent, is not dismantled but strengthened further," he said.