Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju today said that the Indian Judiciary will soon become paperless.
Delivering his inaugural address at the 23rd Commonwealth Law conference 2023, the Minister said that the phase III of the E-court project has already begun with the aim to digitize the justice delivery mechanism.
“This will put paid to the demands for setting up of separate benches of High Courts which keep coming up from different parts of the country. He emphasized that out of about four crore ninety lakh pending cases in the courts, the lion’s share is being handled by the lower courts in the country.
The Minister called for special attention to be paid to the challenges being faced by them. Rijiju also stressed the need to ensure ease of justice by introducing the respective mother tongues in the local courts and even in the High Courts.
Taking a dig at those who are trying to malign Indian democracy, including the Indian Judiciary, Rijiju said the county’s Judiciary will never play the role of an Opposition party to serve the ulterior motives of such people.
Stating the Government’s commitment to upholding the Rule of Law, the Minister hailed the wisdom of Indian judges, in particular and of the Indian Judiciary in general.
Referring to crores of court cases pending in the country, of which the maximum is from lower courts, the law minister said the pendency rate can be reduced by adopting technology. Out of close to 4.9 crore pending cases, around 70,000 cases are in Supreme Court, and 10 per cent of cases are in HCs, while the rest are pending at the lower level.
“The greatest challenge these days is the lower Judiciary. We allocated Rs 9,000 crore last year for strengthening the lower Judiciary. We have written to chief justices of all states to ensure every district court function as a bench of the High Court. The district and subordinate courts should function as vibrant as the High Court and Supreme Court,” he
