CJI: Executive and judiciary siblings, must work together

The CJI and Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who also interacted with the media after the conference

Chief Justice of India H L Dattu said Sunday that judiciary and Parliament are like “siblings” and must work together “towards a truly just and effective administration of justice”.

“Judiciary and Parliament are like siblings, both the children of democracy. We are obligated, on one hand, to support one another, and, on the other hand, correct the other if they sway from the path laid down by our sacred Constitution,” the CJI told a joint conference of chief justices of high courts and chief ministers.

Following two days of deliberation with chief justices, the CJI said that issues concerning the administration of justice are complex and cannot be addressed by the judiciary alone.

“The executive has just as much at stake and the judiciary must work with the executive as equal partners in this extremely important mission. It is only a well-coordinated effort between the executive and judiciary that will ensure we achieve a just and efficient legal system,” he said, describing the joint conference as a “fine example of institutional dialogue”.

CJI Dattu underlined that the issue of pendency of cases in courts cannot be solved by the judiciary alone and requires efforts on multiple fronts and multiple agencies, including drastic change in administration of police and work by prosecution agencies, apart from judicial reforms to tackle this “complex” problem. He said the Supreme Court and high courts have already been taking wide ranging measures to arrest pendency.

Pitching for financial autonomy to the judiciary, the CJI said that although the final budgetary allocation is the prerogative of the executive, the time has come to seriously engage on issues of financial autonomy for the judiciary once the allocation of funds is done.

“Within the allocated budget, the judiciary must have sufficient autonomy to re-appropriate expenditure under the decided heads of expenditure. This will go a long way in assisting the judiciary in taking effective steps in developing judicial infrastructure,” he said.
Calling for a more effective process for release of funds to the high courts by state governments, he said that more judges are needed at all levels of the judiciary.

“The current judge-population ratio in the country is one judge versus 61,865 persons. That is an unacceptable judge-population ratio and we must attack this on war-footing,” the CJI said while making it clear that simply sanctioning more posts without sufficient infrastructure and support to fill these posts would not help the cause.

He also appealed for making judicial offices a financially viable career to attract the young and best minds. “The most urgent need is to ensure that the best minds adorn the bench. If the youth does not see this judiciary as a financially viable career option, it may choose to stay away from the same. If one were to simply compare the salary and perks of sitting judges in India to any other modern democracy, or even compare the same to that of fresh graduates in Indian law firms, the stark reality would be evident. I greatly fear that this would cause the greatest hindrance in attracting competent youth towards judiciary,” he said.

The CJI and Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who also interacted with the media after the conference, said it has been decided to fix an outer limit of five years to complete trial in criminal cases.

CJI Dattu said it has also been decided that a committee will be formed by the CJI to look into the issues of judicial service commission in order to frame a uniform policy to appoint judges at the district level.

Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that it was time for the judiciary to evolve an in-built mechanism for self-assessment, the CJI said: “We have that mechanism… we call it an in-house mechanism, which is in place and is effectively functioning and Chief Justices of states and the Chief Justice of India is monitoring the functioning of their officers throughout the country.”

Asked about the same issue, Gowda said: “The judiciary has got its own mechanism to work out all those things. Independence of judiciary will not be entered upon by the executive at any point of time.”

Asked to comment on former CJI Justice R M Lodha’s remark that courts should function on all 365 days, Justice Dattu said the Supreme Court worked 190 days in a year but people were not told that judges worked 24×7 on all those days.

“Now, for the remaining days in the year, they do not literally sit at home. They do their homework, they write their judgments and they have no time even to spend with family members. But people have a feeling… look, these people work only for 190 days and the other days, they spend an easy-go life. No, this is wrong thinking on part of the people. I can certainly say, having experience of 20 years as a judge, that we work throughout the year… we work 24×7,” he said.

Source:: Indian Express