(UNI) President Pranab Mukherjee advised judiciary to have self discipline to ensure balance among all the three wings of the government.
The guidance came at the valedictory function of sesquicentennial Celebration of High Court of Calcutta here where Union Minister for Law & Justice, Dr Ashwani Kumar, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee and Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir were the guests of honour.
In addition, sitting Judges of Supreme Court of India, former Judges of Supreme Court, Chief Justices of some High Courts were also present on the occasion.
The President recalled the glorious tradition of the Calcutta High Court in laying the foundation of rule of law and referred to the contribution of notable leaders including Swami Vivekananda.
He complimented Indian Judiciary for its innovation, Public Interest Litigation, through which a man sitting in a remote corner of the country can send a postcard to the CJI to seek justice or a small item in the media can draw the attention of Judiciary to initiate action to provide justice.
The President also mentioned that though some monumental judgments courts have defined the roles of executive, legislature and judiciary and legislature has control over executive wings.
He also underlined the need to address the problems of pendency of cases, vacancies in judiciary and the need for an institutional mechanism through which relief can be provided to budding lawyers.
In his address, Dr Ashwani Kumar said that delay in justice delivery may erode the trust of people and hence during the recent conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts a number of decisions have been taken to resolve the issue of delays in courts. He referred to setting up of National Court Management System by the Supreme Court as a right move towards the judicial reforms.
He also mentioned that a decision has been taken to increase the number of subordinate courts and also computerise 14,000 courts at a cost of Rs 935 crore by the end of this year. He also thanked 28 states for formulating Litigation Policies.
In his address, CJI Altamas Kabir said that judiciary has kept the constitution vibrant by way of various interpretations. While underlining the need to expedite disposal of cases, he cautioned judiciary not to let quality suffer to achieve quantity. UNI
