In order to provide justice to the victims, the Central Government is taking measures to fill the vacant posts of judges, said Union Minister of law and Justice DV Sadananda Gowda while addressing a seminar and training session 2016 on ‘Need of Continuing legal Education’ for lawyers and law students at a private hotel in Dehradun on Saturday.
The two-day seminar was organised by Bar Council of India. The Minister said that from January to April 2015, 31 judges had been appointed in the country. This year, 51 judges have been appointed, he added. He further said that after a collegiums have sent a proposal for the appointment judges the Centre is seriously considering it, he added. The seminar aims at to provide a unique opportunity to the students of law as well as new entrants to the profession of direct interaction with national level legal luminaries, including judges of the Supreme Court of India and High Courts, said the organisers.
Gowda said that this being the era of globalisation, globalisation of legal education poses multiple challenges of legal practice. “We must take the challenge head-on,” he said, adding that they should all work to provide justice to the poor people of the country.
Gowda said his ministry had not held back any file regarding appointments. “The appointment of judges is the prerogative of the judiciary. It is decided by the collegiums of judges and the files reach the ministry after the panel of judges decides on it,” he said.
Stressing on the urgent need to fill judge posts, the minister said that access to justice cannot be achieved and justice cannot be delivered to people if the posts of the judges lie vacant, he added.
The Union minister said they are well aware of the situation. “Things regarding the appointment of judges would be cleared soon. The pending cases are piling up. If things continue this way this would amount to denial of justice,” he said.
“In this milieu, the work done by legal Services Authorities (lSAs) is very significant as they clear large number of pending cases. lSAs have not only been making ‘access to justice’ a reality but also relieving courts of enormous burden and pressure,” Gowda said, adding that the most important challenge before lSAs is lack of awareness among the poor and marginalised sections of people about rights. “Some measures have been taken in creating legal awareness among the people of most backward areas of the country. But we need to do more in this direction,” he said.
Justice Dipak Misra, judge, Supreme Court of India was the chief guest while other distinguished guests were Justice KM Joseph, chief justice, high court of Uttarakhand, Justice SK Mukherjee, chief justice, High Court of Karnataka, Justice Vimlesh Kumar Shukla, acting chief justice, high court of Allahabad, senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, chairman, Bar Council of India and Vijay Bhatt, managing trustee, Bar Council of India Trust.