In a strong reply to the oft-repeated complaint against the slow pace of work in courts, the Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious Rs 670 crore five-year plan to tackle the backlog of over 3.4 crore cases pending across the country.
"In seminar after seminar it has become a favourite subject with the speakers to raise the topic of the huge backlog in the courts, but little is suggested about a solution to ease the pendency of cases," the CJI said.
President A P J Abdul Kalam, at a recent conference, had suggested that the Supreme Court judges should work two hours extra a day to complete the 30,000 pending cases, and set an example for other judges to tackle backlog.
Receiving a report on the strategic plan for the implementation of Information and Communication Technology in the Indian judiciary from Justice G C Bharuka, the CJI said this was a very 'refreshing plan' to invigorate and speed up the justice delivery system by fully computerising it -- right from the top to the lowest level.
While thanking the government for promising requisite financial help to implement the ICT plan, the CJI said the judiciary was the most neglected sector compared to the government's initiative in other sectors.
"Post-independence, a lot has been done in other sectors to march with the times, but very little has been done in the judiciary," he said.