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New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS) Ahead of being sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on Monday, Justice Surya Kant on Saturday said reducing the backlog of court cases was his top priority while promising to promote mediation.
Speaking to media persons, the CJI-designate said, “We will work on how to reduce the pendency of cases in the Supreme Court and courts across the country.”
He said that immediately after taking the oath of office as Chief Justice, he will talk to all the High Courts across the country to identify and resolve the issues that are hampering hearings in lower courts.
Justice Surya Kant, 63, said that since the government is the largest party (plaintiff), efforts will be made to resolve this issue as well.
He said steps would be taken in the next few weeks to set up Constitution benches of five, seven and nine judges to hear long-pending important cases.
“Arbitration will also be implemented effectively to reduce the burden of lakhs of lawsuits,” he said.
“Arbitration can be promoted between state governments and between the central government and state governments to reduce the burden of litigation. The focus should be on community mediation. A conducive environment should be created for it,” he said.
Asked about the scope of employing AI to reduce the backlog of cases, Justice Surya Kant said there are many issues and challenges.
“It has its advantages, but people also have some concerns. It can be used in procedural matters. However, everyone wants their case to be decided by a judge,” he said.
According to official data as of July 21 available on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), Indian courts are burdened with a huge pending case count of 5.29 crore.
The data shows that the highest number of 4.65 crore cases are pending in district and subordinate courts, followed by 63.30 lakh cases in high courts and 86,742 cases in the Supreme Court.
Apart from the growing backlog of cases, district and subordinate courts seem to be struggling to function at full strength.
According to the Department of Justice, as on 21 July 2015, the lower courts are functioning with a strength of 21,122 against the sanctioned strength of 25,843 judicial officers.
According to the Ministry of Law and Justice, as a measure to reduce the backlog, Arrears Committees have been set up in all 25 High Courts to dispose of cases pending for more than five years, and similar Arrears Committees have now been set up under District Courts as well.
–IANS
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