On Friday, the Supreme Court Bar Association hosted a reception on the premises of the Supreme Court in honour of the Supreme Court Secretaries of various High Courts. This event is CJI, N.V. Ramana, U.U. Judge Lalit, M. Judge Khan Wilker, Minister of Justice, Kiren Rigiju, Attorney General, K.K. Venugopal and Attorney General Tushar Mehta. It also showed the existence of members of the bar association. Attendees, especially the Supreme Court Justice of the High Court, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, believe that he is a major obstacle in building an effective law enforcement system, and proceedings at all levels of the judiciary. We talked about the surge in the hold.
He started his address in a lighter vein by recollecting that on March 18, 1996, when Justice Bhagwati spoke to the Times Magazine he had declared that the Supreme Court was the most powerful court in the world. He reckoned that even with this power, the Supreme Court is not able to tackle the tremendous heat across the country. Given the hot weather condition, he announced he would keep his speech short and only address the most relevant concern staring the justice delivery system in the face i.e. pendency and vacancy. Mr Venugopal stated that with technological advancements that have now been adopted by the judiciary, it is possible to track the pendency of cases. Though the data is easily accessible, he noted that it was disheartening to look at the huge number of cases pending before courts.
“What is the pendency in court? There is a committee led by J. Chandrachud who puts all the data into the National Judicial Data Grid, where the results calm the darkness.”
He does not hesitate to talk about “desperate situations”.
“They think we are in a desperate situation.”
To better understand the despair of the situation, he has 40 million proceedings pending in the Court of Justice and the High Court. Informed all attendees that there were 4.2 million civil proceedings and 1.6 million criminal proceedings.
“There are 24,000 judges in the court, as well as about 650 judges in the higher court, with 40 million unprocessed courts. 4.2 million civil proceedings in the pending High Court. 1.6 million criminal cases. “
The proceedings have been pending in the High Court for nearly 1015 for 30 years, and it will be difficult for the general public to trust the judiciary, he said.
“Why has the judicial system deteriorated so much? Looking at the number of years pending, many cases are pending, such as 30 years at the trial level, 15 years at the Supreme Court level, 10 years, etc …. What happens? Confidence in the judicial system? Some Supreme Court rulings allow access to the judiciary as a fundamental right, but the surge in proceedings in dispute has prevented this.