CJI hopes to resolve issues raised by SC judge

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India TS Thakur reiterated on Saturday the need to appoint more judges to deal with the pending cases at trial courts and appellate courts

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India TS Thakur reiterated on Saturday the need to appoint more judges to deal with the pending cases at trial courts and appellate courts and hoped to sort out issues raised by Justice Chelameswar, the fifth senior-most judge.

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Filling up of “proper number of judges” at the courts has not kept pace with the increasing number of cases, said the CJI. His comment came after Justice Chelameswar refused to attend the meeting of the collegiums on Thursday, hinting at a potential delay in the appointment of high court judges.

Justice Chelameswar is part of the five-member collegium headed by the CJI and Justices AR Dave, JS Khehar and Dipak Misra as other members.

At the fourth annual convocation ceremony of the National Law University, Chief Justice Thakur said, “Speedy trial is a fundamental right. The adjudicatory process in the courts today is taking unduly long time, which more often than not defeats the right itself.

“But unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, and a major reason is, as we all know, the lack of proper number of judges that are required. This is not happening at the trial level or at the appellate level. This needs to be addressed,” he added. He urged young lawyers to face the challenges posed in today’s world for the “downtrodden” and steer the dynamics of change by being an instrument of constitutional values.

CJI Thakur has been vocal about the shortage of judges. He had earlier said the country needed to double the number of judges from its current strength of 21,000.

At an event here earlier this year, the CJI broke down and criticised successive governments for not increasing the number of judges to a number sufficient to deal with the pending cases.

The CJI had last month said he was disappointed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not mentioning the problem of judicial appointments in his Independence Day speech.