67 per cent of prisoners undertrials: Former CJI

Aligarh (UP), September 4

Expressing concern over the "undue delay" in the existing justice delivery system, former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan said "more than 67.5 per cent" of the prisoners in the country's jails are undertrials.

Addressing a two-day national seminar on 'Towards a Just India' at Aligarh Muslim University on Tuesday, the former Chief Justice made a fervent call for "speeding up" the justice delivery system and "reducing the large number of pending cases" in different session and high courts in the country.

The issue of unusually high pending cases in different courts was unique to India and a big burden on the common man, he said.

"Even civil cases take a long time and this is detrimental to the rights of the people and the fate of their families," he said.

The former CJI called for "filling the large number of vacancies in the judiciary" on a priority basis to tackle the critical issue.

Delivering the presidential address, noted scholar and former professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Anand Kumar said, "We are moving towards a dangerous nexus between the money and state power and there was an urgent need for an enlightened media to play its due role in safeguarding democratic institutions and protecting the rights of marginalised people." The seminar, which concluded here on Wednesday, was organised by the department of political science, AMU. — PTI