by Alok Mohit
PATNA: Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju on Saturday called for strengthening the justice delivery mechanism to reduce the pending cases in courts across the country.
“There is serious need to adopt an alternative dispute redressal mechanism,” he said while addressing a seminar organised by the Bar Council of India and the Bihar State Bar Council in Patna.
“Merely increasing the number of judges will not strengthen the justice delivery mechanism. It is a matter of concern that many cases remain pending in courts for 10 to 15 years,” he said.
“When I became the law minister there were 4.25 crore cases were pending. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number has increased to 4.8 crore,” Rijuju said while emphasising on the need to promote alternative ways like mediation and arbitration.
He said Legal Aid Service Authorities could play a crucial role in getting rid of this problem by promoting more and more lok adalats. For making justice accessible to common man, the Union government was promoting tele law facility and digital courts, he added.
The minister said that the NDA government at the Centre had allocated a budget of Rs 9,000 crore for the improvement of court infrastructure in the country. “In the last eight years, the Narendra Modi-led Union government did not take a single step that would harm the judiciary. We expect the judiciary also to act with respect within its scope and under the ambit of the Constitution to maintain a cordial relationship with the government,” Rijuju said
Addressing the function, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit said the motto of lawyers should be upholding the rule of law. He said they must be rational in thinking and fact finding in nature.
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul of the Supreme Court said lawyers should refrain from going on strike whenever there was a difference of opinion between the court and the bar. “It affects the justice system. People are not able to get justice on time,” he said.
Praising the organisers for the event, Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol said the Bihar State Bar Council was the third largest such body in the country.
