Juggling statistics,CJI reduces case arrears to 1 cr - Excludes 60% Of Cases Pending In Trial Courts For Less Than 1 Yr ;New Method Forces President To Do A Rethink

New Delhi: Over three crore pending cases in the trial courts,high courts and the Supreme Court got reduced to just over one crore in a matter of seconds,thanks to a new practical way of looking at statistics by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia that virtually forced President Pratibha Patil to do a rethink. Speaking prior to the President,who for years have been raising concern over the mounting arrears in judiciary,Justice Kapadia on Saturday took the bull by the horn and said: My brothers judges,who include all trial court judges,have done an excellent job in maintaining a high disposal of cases.But,instead of getting compliments,they have been at the receiving end. The CJI,who is as adept in economics and statistics as law,said: For years I have been listening to speaker after speaker at Vigyan Bhawan slamming the judiciary for mounting arrears.They must know filing of a case today becomes a pending case tomorrow.But,is that an arrear Statistics reveal that 60% of the cases pending in trial courts were less than one year old.So,if we take a realistic look at the arrears and exclude those pending for just one year,then the arrears are only one crore cases.

Speaking immediately after the CJI,Patil struck her usual note by saying: The justice delivery system has been afflicted by explosion of litigation.Current figures reveal that the arrears in the high courts exceed 40 lakh cases,while in the subordinate courts it surpasses 270 lakhs.  But she did take into account the CJIs new method of reading statistics and said: Now as the CJI has talked about the difference between arrears and pendency in cases,I think we will have to review these figures! But,she went on to say: While a litigant has one life,litigation transcends generations.Towards curtailing waste of precious judicial time,we must re-engineer and simplify court procedures,which otherwise tend to make litigations unduly slow and protracted.Frequent demands and liberal grant of adjournments,filing multiple suits and similar tactics make judicial productivity sluggish.Timely pronouncement of judgments and quick execution of decrees would be beneficial. Having been successful in inducing a rethink about court arrears among the audience at the seminar on judicial reforms organised by Confederation of Indian Bar,Justice Kapadia conceded that arrears of one crore cases were not a small figure and unveiled a three-track mechanism to deal with them.Track-I would comprise sticky cases involving complex questions of law and would justifiably take a long time for adjudication.Track-II would include subversive cases,where one of the parties always tries to delay the hearing.Track-III cases would be those which have been delayed due to delay in serving of notices and summons.Having captivated the audience with his brilliant statistical dissection,the CJI said everyone was crying hoarse about judicial reforms,but seldom did anyone talk about urgent reforms needed at the Bar and the process of legislation.Justice Kapadia asked the seniors among the advocates to contribute towards helping the judiciary in complex cases.I do not see any senior advocate in the SC except on Mondays and Fridays, the CJI said hinting that the seniors were interested only in attending court on those two days when the volume of cases heard was large giving huge fees to them.

PITCHED AGAINST: President Pratibha Patil with Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday
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(source-toi)