New Delhi: Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan has said that quality of justice is affected when there is a delay in disposal of cases, which also goes against the interest of litigants.
"Delay in justice causes serious problems for litigants. The money is lost. The time is lost. The quality of justice is reduced," CJI K G Balakrishnan said at a book release here.
Expressing concern over plight of litigants, he said, "The perjuries in trial court and all sorts of illegalities help in delay of justice."
The CJI said there have been efforts to reduce vacant posts in the judiciary to deal with problems of delay in delivering justice to litigants.
"Delay in justice delivery system is a serious problem our judicial system is facing. With much efforts now, we have reduced the vacant posts with the appointment made in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu," he said.
The CJI was speaking at the release function of the book "Justice, Court and Delays" yesterday. Referring to instances of land acquisition and road accident compensation cases, the CJI said the long wait for the justice system to deliver is a serious problem which the Indian judiciary is facing.
"The person who lost land in land acquisition
proceedings, he gets the compensation and is not able to
purchase another piece of land. In motor accident cases, legal
heirs have to wait for four to five years to get justice," he
said.
Attorney General (AG) G E Vahanvati said, "the tragedy
of our (legal) system is that we are prisoners of
pleadings..."
He said that if the pleadings can be presented in a
clear manner, "half the problems are solved as far as judges
are concerned."
The AG said the government will put all efforts to
remedy the problem of delays in the legal system.
"As far as judicial delay is concerned, we will do
whatever we can. Money will not be a constraint," Vahanvati
said.
Former Solicitor General Harish Salve, who was also
present on the occasion, asked the government to appoint more
judges and set up more courts to deal with delays.
"Of course we need investment in infrastructure but
for God`s sake, we need more judges, we need more courts," he
said.
"We all know problems but what we really need to know
is the new ideas, out of the box ideas, on how to deal with
this problem," Salve said.
Bureau Report
