Regarding the nearly four and a half crore cases pending in courts across the country, Chief Justice (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud said that the vacant posts will have to be filled quickly. Advocating a national level recruitment process for judicial services, he said on Sunday (September 1, 2024) that now the time has come to move beyond the narrow walls of regionalism and state-centric selection. In this program, the President Draupadi Murmu And Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal was also present. He also stressed on changing the culture of pending cases and dates after dates.
There are currently 4.5 crore cases pending in courts across the country. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the National Conference of District Courts, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that it is important to attract skilled personnel to deal with the large number of pending cases. He stressed the need for standardization of the recruitment calendar across the country to ensure that the vacancies are filled quickly.
Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said, ‘Currently we are disposing of cases at the rate of 95 percent. Despite this progress, disposing of pending cases remains a challenge.’ He said that 28 percent of the posts of judicial personnel are vacant at the district level, while the vacancies of non-judicial employees are 27 percent. He said that to increase the number of cases disposed of beyond the capacity of the institution, the court will have to work at more than 71 percent to 100 percent capacity.
CJI Chandrachud said, ‘To fill the vacant posts, the conference deliberated on standardization of criteria for selection of judges and recruitment calendar for all vacancies. Now the time has come to think about national integration by recruiting members to the judicial services across the narrow walls of regionalism and state-centric selection. ‘ He said that the Supreme Court’s Research and Planning Center is preparing a white paper to integrate state-level training modules in the State Judicial Academy with national and international best practices.
The Chief Justice said, ‘While some of the State Judicial Academies currently have strong curricula, while others focus on reacquainting newly qualified judges with law subjects, we are in the process of establishing a systematic, nationwide curriculum for judicial training and using technology to monitor its progress.’
He said, ‘The new curriculum promises innovative training methodologies, thematic framework, uniformity in training calendar, integrating judicial training with information technology, restructuring the National Judicial Academy to fill knowledge gaps and most importantly establishing feedback and evaluation mechanisms.’ Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that providing justice is an essential service provided by the courts to citizens, especially the most vulnerable.
