Justice delayed is justice denied

1. "Justice dalyed is justice denied" is an apt statement. The Indian judiciary suffers from this malaise. Here is a letter written to the editor in The Tribune (http://www.tribuneindia.com/ ) on January 16,07:

Backlog: CJI should find solutions

The new Chief Justice of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, has an impeccable track record as an advocate, judge, Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court and Supreme Court Judge. Now that he is at the helm of the country’s judiciary, he should find suitable solutions to the problem of huge backlog of cases.The judiciary is unable to expedite the cases at various levels due to many problems. Shortage of judges is one of them. For a long time, one fourth of the authorised strength of judges has been lying vacant in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Why cannot senior sessions judges of Punjab and Haryana be elevated to the High Court to fill in the vacancies and quicken the pace of justice?Union Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj informed the Lok Sabha that various high courts may get 100 more judges, but the Centre would convene the chief ministers’ conference to deal with the backlog problem. The CJI and chief justices of high courts should also be involved in this exercise.The Centre should also constitute the Indian Judicial Service expeditiously on the lines of the Indian Administrative Service to attract talent to the judiciary. There is no dearth of brilliant law graduates in the country. If the IJS is constituted, these students can try their luck through the Union Public Service Commission. This will, in fact, revolutionise the judiciary and improve the state of affairs.

Lt-Col P.S. SARANG (retd), Chandigarh