For quite some time, State High Court is seized of the problem of pendency not only with it but more importantly with the subordinate courts in all districts of the State. Various reformatory measures have been introduced by the High Court to improve the functioning in State judicial structure like reducing pendency and increasing output. All this is in response to the fundamental principle that justice delayed is justice denied. The battle of the High Court is against delay. Life has changed drastically in modern times. Nobody, be he the justice giver or justice seeker, feels comfortable with delayed justice.
The Chief Justice of the State has taken very bold and highly meaningful step of making all units of the entire legal structure in the State answerable to the High Court for their performance and output. A directive has been issued to all Principal and Session Courts with clear advice to circulate it among all judicial officers serving under their jurisdiction for strict compliance. The directive also contains warning that non compliance would mean negative entry in the ACR of the judges and judicial officers concerned. The directive says that Principal District and Sessions Judges among others will submit information to the Secretariat of the High Court every weekend pertaining to disposal of cases, sitting and rising of the Court and many more things. The order says that all Principal District and Sessions Judges will keep the Chief Justice updated with cases disposed of by them on each working day. The number of cases disposed of, on each working day, by each Judicial Officer is to be made available to the Chief Justice. They have also to mention time of sitting and rising of each Court on every working day.
From the directive of the Chief Justice, one infers that the Chief Justice has not been happy with the functioning of the subordinate courts either on the rate at which these are disposing off the cases or the time the judges invest in performing their official duty. His directive takes into view these two aspects in particular. Since the constitution gives the judiciary very special rights and status, its functioning is not to be monitored in the same manner in which the functioning of administrative officers is monitored. The judges are extraordinarily responsible components of the State machinery and they have to protect the constitution. Entire focus has to be on justice with speed. When judges and judicial officers know that their performance and output are checked every week, this will eliminate the option of wastage of time and reinforce purposefulness of the session. The public hails the directions from Chief Justice as a very positive step in streamlining judicial system in our State.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel