By IANS
New Delhi : Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan Tuesday expressed concern over the rising backlog of cases in the Supreme Court.
“The one thing that concerns us is the rising backlog of cases here,” said the chief justice, without elaborating.
He made the remark during an informal interaction with journalists. The chief justice had convened the meeting with scribes for a first hand appraisal of their day-to-day problems in covering the apex court proceedings.
The backlog of cases pending in the apex court has been exhibiting a rising trend since 1998, when it had touched an all-time low.
The official data from the Department of Justice reveals that the total number of cases pending in the apex court had come down to 19,806 in 1998 from a whopping 104,936 in 1991. But at the beginning of 2006, the number had risen to around 29,000.
The apex court’s quarterly monthly statement on its arrears of cases put the figure of pending cases at 41,581 at the end of March 2007 and 43,580 at the end of July 2007.
Chief Justice Balakrishnan, however, told reporters that he would shortly be taking steps to fill the vacancy of judges in the apex court.
The Supreme Court at present has the vacancy for four judges, while six more judges are slated to retire by November 2008.
Filling the judicial vacancies takes time, owing to which four vacancies of the apex court have been continuing for the last one year, despite the appointment of at least three judges this year alone to fill the three other vacancies that arose owing to the retirement of three judges in the intervening period.
The chief justice also mooted the idea of a short, one-week training for journalists covering the apex court at the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal to help enhance their professional skills.