The Madras High Court has observed that it is only the Bar which is obstructing the induction of of adequate number opf judges for the management and functioning of the judicial system.
The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam stated this while disposing of a petition by one A R Kumar for a direction to the Registrar General of the Court to maintain the 'A' dairy in each court, give specific dates for every case for hearing and prescribe outer time limit to dispose pending cases before it.
"None can doubt the requirement of early justice but the mismatch between the inflow of the cases and the judges strength available make the task difficult," the bench said in its recent order.
Kumar, from Uraivayur village of Puducherry, contended he was selected as instructor and Supervisor Grade III through employment exchange and terminated from service without any notice. His repeated pleas for various reliefs, including promotion, had been admitted by the court and notice ordered but not posted for hearing, he said.
He alleged that he never got a correct reply from the counsel when he sought to know about the posting date.
Stating that it is the right of petitioners to know about the status of cases filed by them, he quoted a Supreme Court order which said it is the fundamental right of a litigant to seek speedy disposal of the case.
The petitioner said he had been approaching the High Court for the past 27 years over several matters and alleged that courts do not take seriously disposal of cases in a time- bound manner. "Justice delayed is justice denied and there is no use of granting relief to a person after enormous delay."
Alleging that there was no time limit in the High Court procedure rules, he said it is unimaginable to think how much time it would take to dispose of five lakh pending cases in the HC with the present strength of Judges and the Staff.
Stating that seven of his petitions are pending in the HC, he sought a direction to the Registrar General to maintain 'A' Dairy in each court, give specific dates for every case of hearing and fix outer time limit for disposing pending Cases.
The bench said "the case management techniques undoubtedly help improve the system and these are all matters which have been examined on the administrative side and that the implementation of the process is already on."
The bench said solutions have to be given to improve the management and the functioning of the system."Most importantly, adequate Judges strength is required which is often obstructed by the action of the Bar," it said.
