CJI: Critics don't understand arrears
The Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia has strongly fended the attack on the judiciary for huge pendency, saying those criticising it for "ineffectiveness" to deal with the problem have not understood the meaning of arrears in the context of the minimum time required to be given to the judiciary to decide a case. "Judiciary has been under attack from various quarters for its ineffectiveness in arresting arrears of cases. Till date, nobody has given a thought what actually `arrears' mean and whether the term `pendency' false within the contours of arrears," said the CJI in his first editorial in the Supreme Court's in-house journal Court News.
The CJI explained that a case did not become an arrear soon after its registration in the judicial term as the court, which will deal with it has be given a reasonable time to decide it and as per the normal judicial procedural standards, one year should be treated as the minimum time.
"A case filed in the morning cannot - and should not - in the evening fall in the category of `arrears'. Pragmatic and holistic views need to be taken. A case pending, at least, for a year in a court by no means can be termed as `arrear' but should be termed as a pending case and this dichotomy is required to be applied in order to asses the actual arrears of cases," the CJI wrote. This was the first editorial by the CJI in the Court News after assuming office in May. The top court brings out four quarterly editions of the house journal every year giving information about inner functioning of the Supreme Court, high courts and lower courts and an overview of the other related developments in the judiciary. Applying his theory to the Supreme Court, the CJI explained that during past couple of years pendency in the Apex Court has been projected around 55,000 cases, to be precise, it was 55,717 on August 31, when the third edition of the house journal went to the press.
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