High courts asked to give priority to old cases

Chief Justice of India P.Sathasivam Wednesday said that he has asked chief justices of all the high courts to give priority to the old cases pending for years, including those concerning women and children.

Chief justices of the high courts have also been asked to provide details on pendency of cases on monthly basis and those settled by the court in the preceding month, said the CJI while inaugurating a litigant-lawyer friendly apex court portal that would provide instant information on the status of their cases and other information.

He said that laptops have already been provided to 13,000 judicial officers in the country.

The portal would soon have more digital platforms to provide online information to the lawyers and litigants including to the judges. Judges will be able to know in how many other courts, cases are being heard on the laws being considered by them.

Congratulating Justice Madan B. Lokur under whose stewardship the court's e-committee developed the portal, Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal said that it was only through technology that transparency could be achieved. He said that there was always an element of discretion in the human dealings.

Sibal advocated uniformity in software of the portals of all the courts from apex court to subordinate courts to facilitate inter-operatibility and enable information about all the courts to be available easily.