The Hindu : Front Page : 300 posts of judges to be filled soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 21, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

300 posts of judges to be filled soon

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 20. The Union Law Minister, H. R. Bhardwaj, today said the Centre had taken steps to fill the vacancies of 300 posts of judges in various High Courts across the country. He said already 75-80 per cent of these vacancies had been filled and the remaining would be taken care of soon.

Addressing a two-day conference on `Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Conciliation and Mediation,' here Mr. Bhardwaj said by 2005 another 200 vacancies of judges in the High Courts would be filled.

He disfavoured the idea of referring the recommendations for the appointment of the judges by the authorities concerned to various Commissions as their credibility in the eyes of the public had been eroded because of a variety of factors. Appointment of more and more judges in the High Courts was the need of the hour for clearing the backlog of cases as a result of which the pendencies in solving the disputes, both civil and criminal, were piling up, he said.

Autonomy to judiciary

He said the Government was very keen to give complete autonomy to the judiciary so that the commercial and other disputes were settled through the ADR mechanism. To help the litigants and the courts to dispose of commercial and other disputes, including matrimonial through arbitration, the Law Ministry would also ensure that the disputes sorted out through arbitration were not further dragged to the courts.

The Minister said the Government would soon write to all the State Governments, including Maharashtra and West Bengal, to help their highest judicial system to set up ADR centres on a priority basis for expeditious settling of the corporate disputes without any further delay. "If this happens, it will enhance the reputation of the State Governments in the eyes of the industry which in turn will result in massive inflow of foreign direst investment (FDI)", he said.

The Chief Justice of India, R.C. Lahoti, said ADR centres should be set up all over the country, particularly in Maharashtra, which was considered as one of the forward-looking States for FDI. He also felt the need for making a larger number of appointments of judges in various courts, including High Courts.

The Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Dalveer Bhandari, announced that in Maharashtra, chain of ADR centres were proposed to be set up to settle a large number of corporate and civil disputes, which were now pending in various courts in the State.

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