Pending criminal cases a worry, CJI to Allahabad HC

New Delhi, September 11

Expressing serious concern over inordinate delay in deciding criminal appeals by the Allahabad High Court, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Saturday urged the Bar and the Bench to work together to resolve the issue.

“I do not want to point any fingers or lay any blame regarding the pendency in the Allahabad High Court relating to criminal cases, which is very worrying. I request the Allahabad Bar and Bench to work together and cooperate to resolve this issue,” the CJI said. He was speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the UP National Law University in Allahabad and a new building complex of the HC.

Issuing notice to the Allahabad HC on petitions seeking broader parameters to be laid down for the grant of bail last month, the top court was shocked to know that there were around 7,400 convicts, many of them poor, languishing in jails for over 10 years.

In his address CJI Ramana described the 1975 verdict of Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad HC setting aside the election of the then PM Indira Gandhi from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency on charges of electoral malpractices as a judgment of “great courage” that “shook” the nation, leading to imposition of Emergency.

He reiterated his idea of setting up a ‘National Judicial Infrastructure Corporation’ to deal with infrastructure-related problems of courts— TNS