By IANS,
New Delhi: Amid the growing demand for a law for mandatory disclosure of their assets by the judges, Chief Justice India K.G. Balakrishnan Friday opened a two-day annual judicial conference of the chief justices of high courts across the country.
Convened at the Supreme Court premises to discuss ways to expedite the disposal of cases and to streamline the justice delivery system, the chief justices conference is also being attended by two other seniormost judges of the apex court, Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice S.H. Kapadia.
The meet is to be followed by another day-long joint conference of the chief ministers and the chief justices of high courts of states.
The joint conference of the chief ministers and the chief justices is to be held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi and will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Though the official agenda for the two conferences does not have any item related to the popular demand for disclosure of the judges’ assets, the issue is bound to crop up during the discussions, said apex court officials.
The official agenda for the judges’ conference includes deliberations on steps for reduction and elimination of backlog of cases with provisions of speedy trial of criminal cases.
Steps to improve infrastructure in the lower courts and to set up more evening courts in subordinate judiciary would also be discussed.
The conference will deliberate upon strengthening vigilance cells in the high courts. The senior judges would also review the progress made in setting up of vigilance cells in each district to keep a tab on the functioning of lower judiciary.
There will also be discussions on the functioning of fast track courts, besides the establishment of gram nyayalayas (village courts). The progress made in modernisation and computerisation of justice delivery system, establishment of e-courts and video conferencing facilities would be evaluated.