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Monday, May 10, 2004

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National

Government blamed for delay in posting Judges

NEW DELHI, MAY 9. The former Chief Justice of India, V.N Khare, today blamed the Government for the delay in filling up 48 vacancies of Judges, saying the office of the Chief Justice was not responsible for the long delays in filling up vacancies.

"The Government is responsible. They can't have inquiries done quickly. This is political inaction. Not necessarily mala fide, but it is sheer inaction, like elsewhere. Things just remain pending'', Mr. Justice Khare told Aaj Tak.

The former CJI justified the swift action on politically sensitive cases such as the Gujarat riots, saying "the State Government had a responsibility to protect the citizens and prosecute the offenders," a press release issued by Aaj Tak said here.

"I think the State Government failed in the latter as an institution, which is why the Supreme Court played a dual role, of prosecuting the offenders and on the judicial side," the release quoted Mr. Justice Khare as saying.

Asked if he felt there was a need to regulate the functioning of Judges, the former CJI replied in the affirmative, but said that he was helpless, as he did not have the powers to do so.

"I told the law Minister as well as the Prime Minister more than once. What more could I do? I told the Law Minister to give me the powers," Mr. Justice Khare said adding ``if I had been given the powers, I would have taken less than 24 hours to carry out corrections in the system, but I was helpless."

The former CJI said he had managed to achieve whatever he had envisaged in the limited time available to him. "When I came, the judiciary was at a low ebb; things were happening in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Delhi and Punjab. My first priority was to restore the confidence of the people in the judicial system and the constitution and I think I have been quite successful in doing that'', he said.

PTI

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