Talking to the terms of Chief Justice of India who is committed to make the judiciary clean and corruption-free, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh called upon the “judiciary to introspect at judges' appointments.”
The Prime Minister after releasing former chief justice of India, P N Bhagwati's book “Judicial Reflections of Justice Bhagwati” on Thursday said that values, which is the basis of our justice system, needs to be maintained.
Steps have been taken to promote legal empowerment and judicial reform. In the past four years we have taken several initiatives to strengthen the judiciary at various levels, and reduce the backlog of pending cases. There are though a number of pending issues which needs to be clear, Dr. Singh said.
“We have large unfinished agenda to reduce the cost of litigation, the magnitude of long pending cases in our courts and to ensure accessibility of the justice system to the poor and marginalised sections of our population.”
In order to wind up the long pending cases and to deal the growing cases, the Central Government has also asked State Governments to augment the number of judicial officers at district and subordinate levels, the PM said.
Dr. Singh also praised Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan for his commitment to clean up the judiciary.
This was in reference to the CJI's recommendations to impeach the Calcutta High Court Judge Soumitra Sen for alleged misconduct and an unprecedented move to authorise the Central Bureau of Investigation to interrogate the two sitting judges-Nirmaljeet Kaur and Nirmal Yadav-of Punjab and Haryana High Court in the 'cash-at-judges-door' scam.
The PM was however seen worried over the declining standard of judiciary. He said judiciary is the last hope of the people. “People judge an institution by what it does, and how it impacts their life.”
He said: “Perceptions are formed about efficiency, fairness, honesty and integrity and about competence and compassion. These perceptions cannot be willed. They are shaped by experience, by hearsay and by public debate and discourse.”
Pointing towards the injustice being faced by the poor and unprivileged sections of the society for want of money, proper representation, Dr. Singh called the judges to play a crucial role here so that people do not suffer injustice heaped upon them by the state or the vested interest.
A number of cases in the recent years in which high and mighty people have been awarded punishments by a court of law have set precedents and that needs to carry forward. These are some of the cases that has gained the media attention, but there are lot other cases in which weaker sections owing to lack of proper representation have to surrender to the superior opponents who tries to influence the outcome of the case by the reason of material resources; here Dr. Singh asked the judges' responsibility comes into play, where they can balance the two parties by providing competent lawyer to the poor sections.
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