On Friday, at a conference organised with the joint efforts of the Supreme Court of India and Indian Law Institue on the topic ‘National Initiative to Reduce Pendency and Delay in Judicial System’, SC Justice Kurian Joseph asked the Centre to ‘avoid the delay’ in the postings of the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.
Justice Joseph said in the conference, “One request to the government: the government must avoid delay in making appointments.” He added, “Once the High Court Collegium sends names to the government, there should not be (delay of) more than three months.”
“As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, since it is an appointment from among the judges serving in the country for quite a long time, there must not be a delay of more than two weeks,” said the apex court judge.
He also said that the age of retirement should be increased to 70 years for the judges of Supreme Court and High courts. Currently, retirement age is 62 years in High Court and 65 years in Supreme Court. Justice Joseph said, “My suggestion to government is to increase the retirement age of high court and Supreme Court judges should be made the same and should be 70. It’s the more productive years as far as the experience of a judge is concerned, we can well utilise them up to the age of 70.”
CJI Dipak Misra who gave the inaugural speech talked about the pendency of cases in the courts. He also asked the high courts and district courts to send in their suggestions to improve the performance of the judiciary system.
Misra said in his address, “Shortage of judges is a factor responsible for pendency but at the same time some courts are functioning and performing better in same conditions. Take such courts as models. This conference is for learning and sharing. Take suggestions and ideas. Conditions may be different but ideas may work over there.”
Justice Ranjan Gogoi suggested reducing the trial length to save the judiciary time. The conference was attended by all high court judges and many district court judges from all over the nation.