Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud on Sunday batted for a national-level recruitment process for judicial services, saying it is time to move beyond the “narrow walls of regionalism and state-centric selection”. Speaking at the valedictory function of the national conference of district judiciary, the Chief Justice said it is important to attract skilled personnel to deal with the large pendency of cases. He stressed the need for standardisation of recruitment calendar across the country to ensure that vacancies are filled in time.
“Our current national average disposal rate is 95 per cent. Despite the progress, disposal of pending cases remains a challenge,” he said. He said the vacancies of judicial staff at the district level are 28 per cent and non-judicial staff vacancies are 27 per cent. He said courts will have to function at more than 71 per cent to 100 per cent capacity to make the number of cases disposed of more than the institutional capacity.
The Chief Justice said, ‘To fill the vacancies, the conference deliberated upon standardisation of criteria for selection of judges and recruitment calendar for all vacancies. Now the time has come to think about national integration by recruiting members to the judicial services across the narrow walls of regionalism and state-centric selection.’
He said the Research and Planning Centre of the Supreme Court is preparing a white paper to integrate state level training modules at the State Judicial Academy with national and international best practices.
The Chief Justice said, “Currently, some of the state judicial academies have strong curricula, while others focus on reacquainting newly qualified judges with law subjects. We are in the process of establishing a systematic, nationwide curriculum for judicial training and using technology to monitor our progress.”
He said, ‘The new curriculum promises to introduce innovative training methodologies, thematic framework, uniformity in training calendar, integration of judicial training with information technology, restructuring of the National Judicial Academy to fill knowledge gaps and most importantly, establishing a feedback and evaluation mechanism.’
The Chief Justice said that delivery of justice is an essential service rendered by the courts to the citizens, especially the most vulnerable. He said that efforts made in the last decade have modernised the judiciary, aimed at providing trained personnel, spacious court complexes, technology-enabled facilities like Suvidha Kendras, e-Seva Kendras and accessible infrastructure like medical facilities and crèches.
He said, ‘Just a day ago we inaugurated a new creche, which has increased its capacity from 20 infants to 100. This reflects the changing demography of our judiciary. The youth are gradually taking over its reins.’ The Chief Justice said that the committee constituted to reduce pending cases includes Justice A S Oka, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Dipankar Dutta, who have efficiently prepared an action plan to reduce the number of pending cases through case management.
He said the action plan envisages three phases. The initial phase includes targeted cases, pending cases, setting up of district level case management committees to clear records. “The second phase which is underway aims to resolve cases that are pending in courts for 10-20 years, 20-30 years and more than 30 years,” he said.
He said, ‘From January to June 2025, the judiciary will implement the third phase of settlement of cases pending in courts for more than a decade.’ The Chief Justice said that other strategies for settling pending cases also include dispute resolution before litigation. He said that the Supreme Court recently held its first Lok Adalat, in which about one thousand cases were settled amicably within five working days.
He said, “There is no reason for cases which can be resolved between the parties to be stuck in the courts for a long time. Undoubtedly the courts are the forum for maintaining the rule of law and dispensing justice under the law.” The Chief Justice said, “However, alternative strategies like Lok Adalat and mediation provide us an opportunity to introspect whether there is a need for adversarial proceedings between the parties or not.”
Justice Chandrachud said the gap between the district judiciary and the high courts must be bridged. He said an environment of open, frank and holistic dialogue between judicial officers and high court judges is important to achieve fair transfer policies, equitable distribution of work and transparency in promotions and appraisals.
The Chief Justice said that the last two days had given him an opportunity to revisit the state of the judiciary and deliberate on constructive solutions that could be implemented immediately and in the future.
