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Monday, July 21, 2014

Symposium on Scheme for Action Research and Studies on Judicial Reforms

SIKKIM HIGH COURT WEBSITE LAUNCHED
GANGTOK, 20 July: Justice Madan B Lokur, Supreme Court Judge highlighted the need for modernization of courts to streamline the maintenance of records and procedures in order to reduce delays in court proceedings.
Justice Lokur was speaking at a symposium organized by the Sikkim Judicial Academy here at Gangtok on 19 July. The symposium was held under the ‘Scheme for Action Research and Studies on Judicial Reforms’ initiated by the Ministry of Law & Justice, Department of Justice, Government of India.
Justice Lokur said, “Access to quick and quality justice is one of the aspects of rule of law and justice delivery mechanism which involves judges, lawyers, litigants and court staff”. He added that management of court and case is helpful to reduce the dependability on manpower and traditional resources.
He stressed that involvement of judiciary, cooperation from lawyers, rigorous monitoring and supervision of case progress are key points in reducing the pendency of cases in courts and providing timely justice to the people of India.
Cases are pending in the courts from Supreme Court to Subordinate Courts. Prime Minister of India and Chief Justice of India have noted their concerns on these issues and the government and judiciary are coming up with projects and measures to reduce the pendency in courts.
The large amount of backlog of cases and delays affect both fairness and effectiveness of the judicial system. These delayed cases and deficiencies in the courts led to the growth of pending cases in such a large number that new cases cannot be dealt with as promptly as they could and should be, said Justice Lokur.
He informed that on 30 June, this year, when Supreme Court resumes after the vacation, 3,005 cases were filed in a single day and if there is no system or technology in place, would have takes months to put on record. However, the mechanism has helped register such cases in a single day.
He also emphasized on dissemination of information to litigants, lawyers and administration while segregating the cases of their nature so that the cases can be heard in time.
While delivering the keynotes address in the symposium Prof. NR Madhava Menon, Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy Training, Bangalore has highlighted on the issues and challenges of ‘Impact assessment of computerization of courts in reducing pendency and improving justice delivery, Identifying the bottlenecks responsible for causing delay in disposal of civil cases in courts and possible policy and procedural changes necessary for reduction of pendency, A study on Court Management techniques for improving the efficiency of subordinate courts and Re-engineering procedures of process service for reducing delays in court proceedings.’
The symposium was also addressed by Professor Imtiaz Gulam Ahmed on ‘A study on Court Management techniques for improving the efficiency of subordinate courts’.
Chief Justice Narendra Kumar Jain has put on record that Sikkim has initiated some innovative ideas to streamline the judicial process for access to justice while delivering the justice at the end.
Justice SP Wangdi, the President of Sikkim Judicial Academy highlighted the initiatives undertaken and said that the Academy will continue to conduct trainings for advocates, judicial officers and administration from time to time so that judicial officers can perform their duties with the help of modern technology and better court management procedures.
Justice Madan B Lokur also launched the Sikkim High Court website as part of e-courts process for better court management.

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