- February 4, 2023
There is no judiciary versus government tussle in country: Law minister Kiren Rijiju | India News – Times of India
“The people who elect the government are supreme, and the entire system is being run as per the Constitution,” said Rijiju while speaking as the chief guest at an event organized to mark the 150th foundation day of Allahabad High Court Bar Association (HCBA) in Prayagraj on Saturday.
The remarks came on a day when the Centre cleared the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation to appoint five new judges to the apex court.
The top court had recently pulled up the Centre over the delay in clearing recommendations for transfer of high court judges, calling it a “very serious issue”, and warned that any delay in this matter may result in both administrative and judicial actions which might not be palatable.
Referring to crores of court cases pending in the country, out of which maximum are from Allahabad High Court, the law minister said that “by adopting technology, we can reduce the pendency rate”.
The minister lauded the “excellent work” done by the judiciary during the pandemic. “It was possible due to technological methods like video conferencing, which was initiated in e-court phase two a few years back. Hundreds of cases are being decided by judges everyday, which is unbelievable for their counterparts in other countries,” he said.
He also lauded the Union government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allocating Rs 7,000 crore in the recent Union Budget for e-court phase three and urged Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Justice Rajesh Bindal, to ensure that Allahabad High Court takes a lead in the third phase of e-court.
Lauding the glorious history of Allahabad High Court, Rijiju said that it is the biggest high court of the country and any success in Allahabad High Court is the success of the country. He urged all those associated with the Bar to maintain its glory, as they are celebrating the 150 years of its foundation.
Regarding other methods to reduce the load of pendency, the law minister said, “The government is making all possible efforts to strengthen the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) method. In this backdrop, ‘Mediation Bill’ is going to be passed soon. Though arbitration is a quasi-judicial process, mediation will be a judicial process, he hinted.
He also urged for the organizing of legal services camps in Uttar Pradesh, as has been done elsewhere, so as to provide cheap justice to the people.
He informed the gathering that in order to make the judicial system easier, as many as 1,426 old and redundant laws have been removed. “Besides, the old laws prepared during the British period with a colonial mindset would also be given up,” he said.
The minister said that maximum use of mother-tongue during arguments should be encouraged in the interest of litigants, adding that “his ministry has prepared a legal glossary and a book on legal terminology in order to make this task easier”.
Lastly, he urged that “the Judiciary, Bar and the Government should work together as a team so as to provide easy and cheap justice to the people, which is our aim and objective”.
Guest of honour, Justice Krishna Murari, a Supreme Court judge, said that he was proud that he was once a member of this Bar association and quoted lines of his senior GN Verma that “life of Bar association depends on the achievements of its members”.
Another guest of honour, Justice Vikram Nath, also a Supreme Court judge, fondly recalled the days spent in this Bar association. In the lighter vein, he termed the Union law minister as “articulate and outspoken”, saying that his frequent statements prove how outspoken he was.
On this occasion, Chief Justice of Allahabad high Court said that “completion of 150 years has given us time for retrospection, and by taking motivation from the past, we can reach to the top”.
Another senior judge of Allahabad High Court, Justice Printinker Diwaker, urged the law minister to help in enriching the library of the high court, as it would in turn enhance the standard of profession of law. He also urged that the practice of adjournments by lawyers must be discouraged.
Earlier, in this welcome address, president of Allahabad High Court Bar Association Radha Kant Ojha said that certain defects in the collegium system have crept in the recent past. He lauded the Union law minister for highlighting this issue at the national level. He also pointed out the huge number of vacant posts of judges in Allahabad High Court, which is putting a huge burden on the judges here.
Apart from several high court judges and a huge number of lawyers, others who shared the dais with the Union law minister included Justice Ramesh Sinha, senior judge of Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, advocate general of UP Ajay Kumar Misra and senior vice-president of HCBA Manoj Kumar Mishra.
