In PM''s presence, CJI breaks down on issue of pending cases

R Sedhuraman

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New Delhi, April 24

Chief Justice of India TS Thakur turned emotional today as he blamed the Centre and state governments for the 3.8 crore pending cases in courts across the country. They (Centre and state governments) failed to increase the number of judges despite several recommendations and orders in the past 30 years, he said.

The number of pending cases would keep on mounting unless the judge-population ratio was increased to 50 judges per 10 lakh people from the present level of less than 15, CJI Thakur said while addressing a joint conference of chief ministers and high court chief justices. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present on the dais.

The judges were under “great stress” due to shortage of manpower and mounting workload and as such there was no scope for increasing their productivity by cutting down on holidays or by having evening courts, he said.

The only solution, he added, was to augment the strength of judges and judicial infrastructure and engage retired judges with proven integrity and calibre for two-three years. While the Centre said the states were responsible for increasing the number of lower judiciary judges, the states maintained they were helpless as the funds had to come from the federal government.

“As a result of a tug-of-war between the Centre and the states, the judges’ strength has remained stagnant” at about 18,000 in the past 30 years, Justice Thakur said in a choked voice. He was seen wiping his tears. He later told reporters that he became emotional as he was also a human being. Nothing much had changed in the past 40 years of his association with the judiciary and legal profession due to the inaction on part of the executive, he said.

Addressing the gathering later, Modi said the government was ready to work with the judiciary by appointing a joint panel of judges and executives to go into the issues and find solutions.

Comparing the Indian judiciary with the systems in other countries, Justice Thakur said each Supreme Court judge in the US handled a mere nine cases every year on an average. Against this, every judge in India — be it in the SC, HC or trial court — disposed of 2,600 cases every year. As many as two crore cases were being disposed of every year by the Indian judiciary which no one was talking about, he said.

Justice Thakur also took the Centre to task for setting unrealistic deadlines for the disposal of cases pending for five years or more. The timelines could be met only if the existing vacancies of judges were filled and the judge-population ratio was raised to 50 judges per million people, he said.