The Prime Minister was at his best while addressing the conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of the States. Like a real statesman, he touched on a number of vital issues facing the nation but essentially concentrated on judicial dispensation and the rule of law. It was obvious that the recent horrific gang rape in Delhi was weighing on his mind which, he said, had demanded necessary amendment in existing laws aimed at protecting women against molestation and other crimes. Certain important reforms had been made in relevant laws but the Prime Minister said it twice that more needed to be done in this behalf.
While conceding that legal system had to be upgraded and made more effective, the Prime Minister also struck a note of caution saying that reason and logic could not be allowed to get submerged under emotion. A progressive and civilized society does not allow emotions to dictate terms in times of crisis. He said that he did understand the disappointment and anger of the youth who comprise a large segment of our society, but instances of severe social crisis had to be dealt with caution and reason. The spates of emotions triggered by an untoward happening are momentary and shall pass. A remedy to social aberrations had to be found through the application of logic and reason. This is exactly what a seasoned Government does when handling such issues.
This brought the Prime Minister to very important subject closely connected with fair and quick justice. It is the existing judicial infrastructure in the country, evidently very inadequate to meet the requirement. With 3 crore cases pending in different courts of the country, it is mind-boggling whether justice will at all be done to the petitioners. Touching on the subject with all seriousness, the Prime Minister thanked the judiciary for having initiated the concept of fast-track courts to handle cases of heinous crimes with speed and justice. He minced no words about inadequacy of present judicial infrastructure and announced that he would approach the 14th Finance Commission with the request to make adequate allocations for bringing up the infrastructure in junior courts of justice so that enormous pendency is reduced in shortest possible time. This means that more courts will be opened in states and more judges would be appointed to them to make judicial system efficient and result-oriented. Gross disproportion between the number of judges and the population can be understood from the fact that there are only 15.5 judges available for one million people according to present dispensation. This cannot bring about reduction in pendency nor can justice be done to the deserving. Therefore the Government shall have to intervene effectively, and the good thing is that the Prime Minister is seized of the problem. The Prime Minister is committed to bringing about drastic reform in judge-people proportion issue and he said.” On behalf of the Central Government, I would like to assure this august gathering that we would increase appropriately the quantum of funding for the scheme under which we provide support to the State Governments for creation of infrastructure for subordinate judiciary”. Nothing could be more encouraging and more assuring for the judicial segment.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Justice of India emphasized that the nation needed to concentrate on providing all facilities to the children who comprise 15 per cent of the 50 per cent of youth of the country. He said that in next two decades these children would be called upon to run the country. If they are not equipped properly for the great responsibility that they will have to shoulder, how can this country feel safe for its future? He made a cogent remark that education was spreading among the lower classes of society for the first time in the history of the country and governance would no more remain the exclusive domain of the elite. As such society needs to groom the children of poorer sections for the task ahead. He said that the nuisance of drug addiction had to be stamped out lock, stock and barrel. He argued that juvenile laws needed to be amended to make them applicable justly and with effect.
From the deliberations of this important conference, the prominent and significant outcome is that there has to be a realization in the states and other concerned organizations that untoward events need to be handled with cool headed logic and not with sentiment. Secondly, our judicial structure needs reforms and restructuring to meet the needs of the people. Lastly, a workable understanding and rapport needs to be established between the State Governments and the judiciary aimed at understanding the problems of the people in general.
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