New Delhi, Sep 25 (IANS) An advocate moved the Supreme Court Tuesday, seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the central and state governments for allegedly ignoring a five-year-old apex court order for appointment of more judges in lower courts.
Delhi-based advocate Sanjay Goel, in his petition filed in the court’s registry, made Union Law Secretary T.K. Vishwanathan and chief secretaries of various states and union territories the respondents in his petition and sought contempt proceedings against them.
Goel recalled in his petition that the apex court on March 21, 2002, had directed the central and state governments “to fill all the existing vacancies in the lower courts, if possible latest by March 31, 2003”.
The advocate contended that the apex court had also asked the government “to increase the judges’ strength in lower courts to 50 judges per one million of population and to recruit the requisite number of judges within five years”.
Goel pointed out that the apex court order was passed five years ago but successive governments appear to have done pretty little to implement it as is evident from the abysmally low budgetary allocation for the purpose in states.
Goel in his petition said that “delays in delivery systems and shortage of judges are two primary causes of corruption in the judiciary”.
“People seek shortcuts through bribery etc. to get things done,” he added.
According to official figures, there is a vacancy of 2,768 judges in lower courts across the country. The lower courts are working with 11,951 judges against a sanctioned strength of 14,719.
This is one of the prime reasons of the huge backlog of cases, to the tune of 25 million, pending in subordinate judiciary, with some even taking two to three decades for resolution.
The petition was filed in the wake of the apex court expressing concern over the tardy pace of resolution of litigation in courts.
Upset over non-resolution of a petty property dispute dating back to 1947, the Supreme Court last Thursday had observed that the tardy pace of the judiciary’s functioning had led to dwindling faith of people in it and also prompted recent instances of street justice like lynching of suspected thieves in Bihar.