Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, along with two senior judges of the Supreme Court, on Sunday held a meeting with high court judges to discuss issues related to filling up of vacancies, appointment of ad-hoc judges in high courts and establishment of evening courts.
The meeting was held a day after a national conference was organised by the apex court here to address issues faced by the state judiciary.
"The conference was followed by a meeting of the chief justices of the high court and senior-most judges of the high court with the Chief Justice of India, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice B R Gavai and Justice Surya Kant, judges of the Supreme Court of India," the top court administration said in a press release.
"Issues relating to filling up of vacancies in high courts, appointment of ad-hoc judges in high courts and establishment of evening courts were discussed," it said.
On January 30, considering a backlog of over 18 lakh criminal cases, the apex court allowed the high courts to appoint ad-hoc judges, not exceeding 10 per cent of the court's total sanctioned strength.
The bench had relaxed and kept in abeyance certain conditions the top court had imposed in its April 20, 2021 judgment on the appointment of ad-hoc judges in the high courts.
The release said the conference held on Saturday witnessed the participation of judges of the top court, the high courts as well as the district judiciary.
It said issues like identification of bottlenecks in case disposal and strategies to reduce backlog of cases at different levels came up for discussion at the conference.
"The idea behind this conference was to engage in a meaningful dialogue with different stakeholders and functionaries in the state judiciary, especially the district courts, to first understand the challenges being faced by them and thereafter, chalk out a plan to address the same," the release said.
The conference had four technical sessions that covered diverse topics affecting the performance of the state judiciary. The technical sessions were chaired by the judges of the apex court, including the CJI.
The release said the first session witnessed discussions on ways to narrow the gulf between institution and disposal of cases, identification of case types flooding judicial dockets, identification of bottlenecks in case disposal and strategies to reduce backlog of cases at different levels.
It said in one of the sessions, the feasibility of having a uniform case categorisation in different courts was explored.
"In this session, ways to leverage technology better to optimise the judicial processes were also deliberated upon," the release said.
It said discussions were also held on the timely recruitment of judicial officers and court staff, continual recruitment or empanelment of public prosecutors or legal aid counsels, creation of a permanent IT and data cadre in all high courts and district courts and measures to enhance objectivity in the process of recommending suitable candidates from district judiciary for elevation to the high courts.
Discussions on career progression and continuous performance evaluation of judicial officers, the need for establishing a common curriculum for training and capacity building of judicial officers and ways of ensuring accountability of judicial officers and court staff were also held during the sessions.
