The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Clear cases quickly, urges Chief Justice

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Clear cases quickly, urges Chief Justice

By Our Special Correspondent

VILLUPURAM, JAN. 30. The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Markandey Katju, has called for the adoption of new techniques to reduce the enormous burden of cases arising out of various factors such as increase in the number of litigations, legal awareness and shortage of judges.

Inaugurating the combined court buildings here, Mr. Justice Katju said that 95 per cent of the cases in the United States were resolved through either conciliation or mediation. Though he did not favour the U.S. model, he said it was worth considering.

Of late, the judiciary is in the public gaze and scrutiny, and rightly so. In a democracy, the people are supreme and all the arms of the state — executive, judiciary and legislature— are their servants. "Justice is not a cloistered virtue and if the judges observe the principles of integrity, impartiality and learning, they will command respect," he said.

The Chief Justice appealed to the judges to dispose of the cases quickly and asked the lawyers to avoid unnecessary adjournments.

The delay was not without reasons: the transition from an agrarian based to industrialised society had spawned legal problems.

Overburdened

The Family Courts were now finding it difficult to cope with the number of divorce and (child) custody cases.

The judiciary was overburdened and there was shortage of funds and staff. Some judges did not have stenographers and, therefore, they had to write the judgment in long hand, causing delay.

He said that every judge should be provided with an official phone "as it was not a luxury but of an absolute necessity" and a house.

Mr. Justice Katju appealed to the Union Minister of State for Law, K. Venkatapathy, to sanction funds for carrying out repair works and construction of new court buildings.

The Minister agreed to consider the request.

Justice N. Dhinakar, Judge of the Madras High Court, and executive chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority, said through the Lok Adalats conciliation to the tune of Rs. 1,000 crores had been made and through Prison Adalats, 5,996 cases had been cleared.

Justice P.K. Misra, Judge, Madras High Court, said he would not subscribe to the view that court activity suffered because of adjournments. Whenever an adjournment was sought, the lawyers were busy taking up other cases.

He said the abode of the "Goddess of Justice" was known for "the magnificence of her heart and not for the magnificence of the edifice."

Hence, the judges, too, should deal with the cases sincerely and honestly.

The Law Minister, D. Jayakumar, said the State Government had sent a Rs. 140-crore proposal to the Centre for the construction of new court buildings expressing its readiness to contribute its share (matching grant).

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