NEW DELHI, Apr 24 (TOI) : After the Chief Justice of India (CJI) broke down in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday on the issue of the overworked judiciary, the PM proposed a closed-door meeting with him to discuss manpower issues and judicial reforms.
The PM's invitation came in response to CJI TS Thakur's impassioned speech at a conference on Sunday of chief ministers and high court justices, during which he urged the government to refrain from criticizing the judiciary because judicial reform was in the hands of the executive - and the executive hasn't kept its part of the bargain.
"... it is not only in the name of a litigant or people languishing in jails but also in the name of development of the country, its progress that I beseech you to rise to the occasion and realise that it is not enough to criticise. You cannot shift the entire burden on the judiciary," the Chief Justice said, choking up.
Prime Minister Modi assured the CJI of his government's resolve in finding a solution jointly with the judiciary.
"I can understand his pains..that the 1987 proposal (of increasing the judge, population ratio) was not fulfilled by the government," PM Modi said while addressing the conference.
The PM was referring to a 1987 Law Commission recommendation to increase the number of judges to 50 judges per 10 lakh people from the then 10 judges per 10 lakh people.
"Nothing has moved" since 1987, the CJI stated baldly.
"I don't know what were the constraints the previous governments faced in implementing this proposal (of increasing the judge to population ratio), but my government will look into it seriously and try to solve this," the PM said in his short speech.
Three decades later, the judge to population ration is a mere 16-17 judges per 10 lakh people, in a country that has added 25 crore people.
" ... how do you think the judiciary's present strength of 16,000 can dispose of a case pendency of 3 crore," the CJI said while looking directly at Modi.
"Hon'ble PM the commercial courts project is one of your prime agendas but what's happening? These commercial courts are being designated out of the existing courts. Will that serve the purpose when the concept was to provide a different environment for commercial disputes?" the CJI said.
Modi is man of action.he has taken swift action already... im sure CJI will be happy with PM's swift action...
The PM also said efficiency when making laws needs to be increased. "There are so many laws that are redundant and not suited for the times, those need to be removed," PM Modi said.
Justice Thakur probably put it best when he said : "Simply putting old wine in new bottle will not serve the purpose."