Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the backlog of cases is diminishing the strengths of the Indian judicial system and asked states to take immediate action to set up rural courts to deliver justice at doorstep in villages.
"...The Indian judicial system, in some sense, reflects a great contradiction. Our democracy and our legal and judicial system have strengths that are admired the world over," Singh said.
"However, all these strengths are somewhat diminished by the arrears and backlog of cases at every level of our judicial system," Singh said, inaugurating a national convention on 'Law, Justice and the Common Man' organised by the All India Congress Committee's legal and human rights department.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who presided over the convention, struck a similar note, saying more than 2.5 crore cases are pending across various levels of judiciary. Noting that "it has always been our persistent belief that justice should be speedy, effective and affordable", she said the Gram Nyayalaya Act is yet another "milestone legislation" that seeks to give life to this aspiration.
These Gram Nyayalayas (rural courts) are aimed at providing inexpensive justice to the people in rural areas at their doorsteps. More than 5,000 courts are expected to be set up under the Act, for which the Central government will provide about Rs 1,400 crore to the states.
These courts will also ensure the reduction of arrears.
Singh said the lead for legal and judicial reforms has to "come from within" and promised to "walk the extra mile" to match each step of the bar and the bench in this regard.
"Legal and judicial reform is not the concern only of the judiciary or the legislature -- it is equally the solemn responsibility of the executive and indeed of the bar," he said.
"The lead, however, has to come from within," he added.
Noting that justice should be "effective and firm", Gandhi said the United Progressive Alliance I and UPA II have brought a wealth of unprecedented legislative reforms from the Right to Information Act, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to the Women's Bill being passed in Rajya Sabha, "which is now to get the approval of Lok Sabha".
Law Minister M Veerappa Moily made a strong plea for creation of a national data bank on lawyers belonging to the Congress.
"So that we can found domain expertise...we can train them in different fields and ultimately we can also bond them in the mainstream of judiciary," he said.
