New Delhi, April 10
Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan said there is a new “disturbing” litigation trend in the country - a fall in civil disputes but a rise in criminal cases. “Criminal cases have witnessed a three per cent rise while there has been six per cent decrease in civil cases? This is a disturbing trend,” the Chief Justice said late Thursday evening, while inaugurating a function to mark the beginning of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Bar Association of India.

Elaborating upon the new trend, Chief Justice Balakrishnan said: “87 per cent of the total cases pending in India are in the subordinate courts, of which 71 per cent are criminal cases.” In states with higher literacy level, the number of civil cases was 29 per 1,000 people while in states with poor literacy it was as low as 4.6 per 1,000, he said. Describing the number of civil cases filed as “very low”, the CJI wondered why people were not coming forward to file civil suits. He appealed to the lawyers and legal community to ponder over this issue and help genuine and needy litigants in getting justice at an affordable cost.

The CJI also rued that in recent years there had been some instances of collusion between the defence and prosecution counsel in criminal cases.

The Chief Justice also disapproved of the astronomical fees being charged by the lawyers from clients and asked them to improve their ethical standards instead and help youngsters during their initial years in the legal profession.

Justice Balakrishnan said statutory bodies like the Bar Council of India and other state bar councils often take too much time in deciding complaints of professional misconduct against advocates. — IANS