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New Delhi: The
judicial infrastructure needs to be improved to speed up the
delivery of justice, a Supreme Court judge said here Saturday.
"Increasing the number of judges alone will not help in speedy
disposal of cases," Justice Madan B. Lokur said at a CII seminar
on Technology to Enable Accessible and Speedy Justice.
Justice Lokur said increasing the number of judges should be
followed up by toning up of the infrastructure at the command of
the courts.
He also expressed concern over the low allocation to judiciary in
the budget.
"The judiciary was allocated only 0.4 per cent of the budgetary
outlay, which was quite insufficient," he said.
"The total number of courts in the country is going to be
increased from 14,000 as of now to 18,847. Apart from more judges,
we require land, new courts, modernisation of the existing courts,
staff to help judges and resources, which will be hard to come by
in this situation, when there are many other challenging agenda
before the government," he said.
Justice Lokur, also the chairman of the e-committee of the apex
court, said: "Many far-reaching steps will be taken in the next
one year or so in speeding up delivery of justice with the help of
technology".
Foremost is video-conferencing among judges, he said.
To track down and reduce petty cases such as bribes demanded by
various segments of people, he said photos or audio images taken
by anybody of an act of corruption could be considered as
evidence.
The Central Vigilance Commission, he said, had developed a
software linking all criminal courts, prisons and police stations.
This system, when adapted, would help courts decide on granting
bail to under-trials without them being present in the courts, he
said.
Also, such a software would help track history of under-trials and
people who stand on sureties and even the age of the cases.
Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice A.K.
Sikri said judges should be apace with technology to ensure speedy
justice, particularly on cyber crimes.
Also, judges had to be sensitised about carrying out speedy
justice in cases related to rape, discrimination against the
HIV-infected and the destitute, he said.
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