Chief Justice Breaks Down at National Conference

Addressing a joint conference of chief ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts, he said the country's judiciary was dealing with an "avalanches of cases" and suffered from a poor judge-population ratio and perennial vacancies. The ratio was dismal compared to even other developed countries. "It is not enough to criticise. You can't shift the entire burden on judges," he said commenting on the government stance. He gave the instance of American courts where nine judges of the American Supreme Court together decide 81 cases in a year whereas a judge in the Indian Supreme Court decides 2,600 cases a year.

He lamented inaction by the Executive to increase the number of judges from the present 21,000 to 40,000 to handle the high number of cases. "It is not only in the name of a litigant or people languishing in jails but also in the name of development of the country, its progress that I beseech you to rise to the occasion and realise that it is not enough to criticise. You cannot shift the entire burden on the judiciary," the Chief Justice of India said in a choking voice.
Taking a swipe on the government policies he said, "a robust judicial system was needed to attract foreign investment and to make the Make in India campaign a success. Those whom we are inviting (for investment) are also concerned with the judicial system and justice delivery. Efficacy of the judicial system is vitally connected with the development of the country."
"The only remedy is to establish more courts and increase the strength of the judges to 50 judges per million population," Justice Thakur said. He said that despite the poor judge-population ratio and vacancies, the recommendations by the apex court collegium for the appointment of judges were pending with the government which was taking its own time to act on them. Pointing that "nothing really appears to be moving", Chief Justice Thakur said all that was happening was the shifting of buck between the central and state governments on addressing issues related to the judiciary.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was present at the conference, offered to set up a committee of government officers and people from the judiciary to address the issues flagged by the head of the country's judiciary. "I will make efforts to address the serious concerns raised by the chief justice," Modi told the conference.