The Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, said on Sunday that a financially insecure judiciary will be a “grave danger” and mentioned that providing proper working conditions for the district judiciary is a small price that the nation pays for securing their independence and impartiality.
In his valedictory address at the National Conference of the District Judiciary, the CJI recalled that two years ago, the President Droupadi Murmu emphasized the need to declog the jails in the country by not keeping petty criminals behind bars.
“Those words of the honourable President ring true today,” CJI Chandrachud said.
“With that hope and aspiration that we had tried to inculcate a sense of independence and confidence free of fear in the minds of our young judges that they shall be protected by the system despite the fact that they retain their fierce independence,” he further said.
“Providing proper working conditions for the district judiciary is a small price which the nation pays for securing their independence and impartiality. A financially insecure judiciary will be a grave danger,” the Chief Justice said.
“Collectively, we shall continue our project to make our judiciary more transparent, humane, and equipped to deal with the challenges of our time,” he added.
CJI Chandrachud also mentioned about the committee action plan to reduce burden of cases..
He said that Committee on reducing arrears of cases shared by Justice AS Oka and consisting of Justices Vikram Nath and Dipankar Datta have skillfully laid down action plan for reducing case pendency to case management.
He elaborated on the three stages of action plan. One is preparatory stage of forming district level case management committee to identify target cases and undated cases and reconstruction of records. Second one is to resolve cases pending before courts for 10-20, 30 years or more and third is that from Jan-June 2025 the judiciary will executive third phase clearing backlogs pending for over a decade in the courts.
The Chief Justice said that justice delivery is an essential service which we provide to our citizens, especially the most vulnerable.
Efforts in the past decade have modernized our judiciary, aiming for a tech savvy and accessible infrastructure such as trained personnel, spacious court complexes, facilitation centers, e-seva kendras, medical facilities and creches, he added.
(With ANI Inputs)
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