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Union law minister praises judiciary for stepping up during the pandemic
“I wish to congratulate the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, all Supreme Court of India judges who really rose to the occasion and ensure that the great wheel of justice does not stop,” Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Union Minister for Law and Information and Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad praised the country’s judiciary for stepping up during the time of the Covid-19 crisis to ensure that the delivery of justice was not interrupted during the lockdown.
Speaking at the inaugural event of a new complex for the Bombay High Court at Goa at Penha de Franca overlooking the capital city of Panaji, the Union minister said, “I wish to congratulate the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, all Supreme Court of India judges who really rose to the occasion and ensure that the great wheel of justice does not stop. This unique innovation of India’s judiciary to allow virtual courts not to interrupt the wheel of justice will be indeed very remarkable. As I have said to friends, technology is very important. This is the age of technology, technology is power,” Prasad said.
According to the law ministry, 82 lakh cases were heard through video conferencing, the Supreme Court of India heard 59,309 cases, the High Courts heard 27,58,560 cases and subordinate courts heard 54,46,876 cases.
The CJI, who threw open the new court house, while speaking on the occasion, said that more than bigger and better court complexes, the need of the hour is to focus on modernising the courtroom.
“Discussions on infrastructure have been largely quantitative, that is on building more courtrooms. Though building more courtrooms is necessary and important, there was very little emphasis on modernising existing courtrooms. In this regard, though the pandemic has posed a lot of problems to access to justice, it has paved the way for modernising the courtroom,” Justice Bobde said.
“I see a trend of having smaller courtrooms in the future because of Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad’s ministry. The e-filing and data which can be contained is going to take away the need for many storage rooms and many rooms which are necessary for storing paper. The SC has done its bit on issues of court infrastructure. It has devised benchmarks and frameworks for minimum standards,” he added.
The new building of the Bombay High Court at Goa will also witness, as its first event, a full-court meeting of the Bombay High Court
Besides five Supreme Court judges, around 62 judges of the Bombay High Court, including Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and its benches in Aurangabad, Nagpur and Goa, were also in attendance at the inaugural function.
