By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, APRIL 07, 2013: WHILE addressing the distinguished gathering of State Chief Ministers and the Chief Justices of all High Courts at National Conference, which took place after four years today in the National Capital, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, expressed his agreement with the Chief Justice of India over the issue of inadequacy of the judge to population ratio of 15.5 judges per million population in India. He urged the States to take the initiatives to alter this ratio and promised central fund for creating infrastructure for subordinate judiciary.

The PM also said that his Government will sensitise the Finance Commission for devolution of funds to the State Governments specifically for the judicial sector. ''In addition, we will request the Commission to earmark funds for establishing fast-track courts for speedy trials not just in cases involving heinous crimes but also those in which offences have been committed against the vulnerable people like the elderly, women and children,'' he added.

Dr Singh expressed happiness that the Judiciary and the Executive have worked together in making significant progress to invest courts with the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) capabilities. The Central Government, the State Governments, and the High Courts are working in close coordination for up-gradation of the ICT infrastructure in the Supreme Court, the High Courts as well as provisioning for ICT in the 14,249 district and subordinate courts. A National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) will be an important outcome of this project and it will provide a unique platform for accessing judicial statistics on pendency on a real time basis across the country. It will provide information to people on cases and will bring about an improvement in the working of courts through better case handling and case management. The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) has the potential to transform the working of the lower judiciary and to bring about major improvements in the delivery of justice to our people, he added.

The PM said that the long pending proposal for the constitution of All India Judicial Services has made some headway after it was discussed for the first time in the conference of 2009. ''I learn that the subject will be considered in this conference. I hope that in the deliberations that follow a consensus will emerge on the way forward,'' he added.

Dr Singh emphasised that he is conscious of the enormity of the task the judiciary faces in reducing the backlog of cases and increasing the pace at which trials take place. He said presently, over 3 crore cases are pending in various courts across the country and 26 percent of them are over 5 years old. The Vision Statement and Action Plan adopted by the Chief Justices' Conference in October 2009 had identified two major goals for judicial reform - increasing access to justice by reducing delays and arrears in the justice delivery system, and enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards and capacities. It had also identified 9 initiatives for immediate implementation. I understand that some of these initiatives have since been implemented and others are being driven actively. While the Government has set up the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms in the Department of Justice for pursuing the objective of reducing the pendency of cases in our courts, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India has established the National Court Management Systems (NCMS) which will develop a National Framework of Court Excellence (NFCE). This framework will lay down timelines and measurable standards of performance for courts on the touchstone of quality. Besides, I have been informed that, a Case Management System (CMS) will also be developed to establish user friendliness of our judicial processes, he added.