All India conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices, 2013 – Who said what

A three-day conference attended by the Chief Ministers and the Chief Justices of the country’s High Courts concluded this past Sunday. The last day saw a series of announcements, including the decision to double the number of judges to 37,000 over the next five years. Here is a quick wrap up of who said what..Chief Justice Altamas Kabir.Admitting that all was not well between the Judicary and the Executive, Chief Justice Altamas Kabir stated that the “bridge” between the Executive and the Judiciary was “on the verge of collapsing”, a situation he was trying to remedy..The Chief Justice cautioned judges against interfering in the government’s policy matters and stated that:.“The general principle is that we don’t interfere in government polices until and unless these are in conflict with the constitutional provisions and the law”.Chief Justice Kabir may well have been reacting to a statement made by Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal. Sibal had recently spoken against the Supreme Court’s decision to cancel 122 telecom licenses granted by the Indian government..Perhaps the most contentious issue between the two State organs relates to the manner in which appointments are made to the higher judiciary. Strongly defending the existing collegium system of appointment, the CJI said:.“A great degree of deliberation goes into the appointment of judges. It is not that it comes out of blue. It goes to High Courts for [their] opinion. It goes to the government and when it comes to the Supreme Court, it is considered by five judges”..Law Minister Ashwani Kumar.Kumar reiterated that his Ministry had finalized a bill to establish the National Judicial Appointments Commission, although this will not be the first time such an organization has been planned. As Arvind Datar notes in this article, the Constitution (67th Amendment) bill of 1990 had sought the creation of a National Judicial Commission for Supreme Court and High Court judges. A similar proposal was made via the Constitution (98th Amendment) Bill of 2003, a Bill that eventually lapsed after the dissolution of the Parliament..Law Minister Ashwani Kumar also said that there was a general consensus amongst most states with respect to the establishment of an All India Judicial Services (IJS), on the lines of the IPS and the IAS. He did, however, clarify that some more work needed to be done before the IJS was launched..On the issue of establishing more Fast Track Courts (FTCs), Kumar said that the Centre would bear 75 per cent of the finances required to establish FTCs in various states. The Law Minister also said that more than 12,000 subordinate courts had been computerized so far, a number which would cross 14,000 by March, 2014..Interestingly, in the last such conference in 2009, one of the issues discussed was whether there should be a higher number of judges appointed to the higher judiciary from the “Service” category, rather than from the Bar..Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.Praising the Supreme Court for vindicating “its role as the guardian of our Constitutional values and ideals”, the Prime Minister stressed on the need to listen to “the voice of sanity and logic” in the face of demands for judicial reforms. The PM remarked that the Central Government would request the 14th Financial Commission to allocate funds specifically for the allotment of FTCs. Amongst other things, the Prime Minister also called for the strengthening of legal aid mechanisms, promotion of alternative methods of dispute resolution, and increasing the number of Gram Nyayalayas. (the entire text of the Prime Minister’s speech is available here).Chief Ministers.Meanwhile, various Chief Ministers had their own demands and suggestions on fighting the backlog of cases. Haryana’s Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda has pushed for a separate High Court for the state of Haryana, although the proposed method of “bifurcating” the existing premises and staff might face difficulties in implementation..Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha, whose speech was read out by the State Law Minister, said the government and the Supreme Court ought to reconsider allowing the usage of Tamil in the High Court. A similar view was expressed by Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi who pressed for the use of vernacular languages in judicial proceedings so as to speed up the adjudication process.