Mumbai: President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said the pendency of 31 million cases in courts across the country was very disturbing.
"I am very disturbed to find a staggering 31 million cases pending in various courts all over the country and hope the judiciary would do its best to clear them," Mukherjee said, inaugurating the sesquicentennial celebrations of the Advocates` Association of Western India (AAWI) here. Stressing the well-known maxim `justice delayed is justice denied`, the President said he was, however, happy to note that the Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam had recently initiated steps to clear the backlog.
The President exhorted AAWI to ensure that the legal fraternity was equipped with best facilities. Mukherjee said he was happy to note that AAWI was nurturing talents to gain fame in jurisprudence and that this 150-year-old organisation was a crucial link of litigants in rural areas of the state with the Bombay High Court.
The President said advocates should put their experience to good use for the benefit of the common man.
He pointed out that Mahatma Gandhi and many others, who took part in the freedom struggle, were members of AAWI.
He referred to a quote of Gandhi who had said that there is a higher court than anyone and that was one`s own conscience.
Mukherjee also said it was important for the judiciary to remain transparent.
"Not only the delivery system should be made simple and acceptable but it is also necessary to render quality and speedy justice," he said.
The President said the formation of AAWI was a significant moment in the political history too as it signalled awakening among lawyers to play a more active role in the movement for self-rule.

"A large number of national leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, were lawyers. Training as advocates and exposure to legal systems in India and abroad helped them to lay the philosophical foundations of our national movement.
"Consequently, the freedom struggle gave liberty, basic rights and promotion of true democratic credentials in the country the highest priority," the President said.
The Indian legal luminaries who assumed the leadership of freedom struggle, therefore, represented an enlightened army of reformers. Many were products of Universities and High Courts of the then Bombay, Calcutta and Madras and also the legislative councils established in India, Mukherjee said.
These reformers strived hard to create strong institutions and systems for their fellow countrymen. Moderate in approach, they were men whose commitment to the rule of law was unflinching, the President said.
Mukherjee said he saluted the vision and sagacity of the six AAWI founders -- Dhirajlal Mathuradas, Shantaram Narayan, Nanabhai Haridas, Vishwanath Narayan, Pandurang Balibhadra and Ganpatrao Bhaskar.
The President also paid tributes to Jagannath Vashudewji who was the first Indian to be appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court from the subordinate judiciary, and Nanabhai Haridas who became the first permanent judge of the Bombay High Court appointed from the Vakil bar (AAWI predecessor).
"I too was attracted by the legal profession and graduated in the subject. Though I did not have the good fortune to practise at the bar, the profession is indeed close to my heart as lawyers play a critical role in our society," Mukherjee said.