Faith in judiciary deteriorating; way out is to appoint more quality judges: Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed

Faith of public in judiciary is deteriorating and the only way to restore the faith is by appointing quality judges to the bench, former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed recently said. .Access to justice is huge problem in India particularly in those courts where there are large number of cases, said Justice Ahmed.He emphasized that the only way out is to have more judges and higher quality judges."By quality I don't mean someone has to be super brilliant or has to remember all the precedents but it (should be) somebody who can understand what the counsel are saying or other side and understand the plight of litigants as they come to court to get justice," he said..Justice Badar made these remarks during a dialogue with Justices Mukta Gupta, UU Lalit, S Muralidhar and R Basant, moderated by Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran and advocate Malvika Prasad.The dialogue titled "Conversations on Justice" was organised in honour of recently retired Supreme Court judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat by Justice Bhat's family, friends and current and former law clerks.The event was held at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi..On the issue of granting relief to litigants, Justice Ahmed emphasized that relief should not be regarded as an inheritance of the judge which should be withheld and that if a person deserves relief, the judge should give him relief."Apke baap ki jaagir thodi hai jo relief nahi dena (relief is not your father's inheritance that you won't grant it). Nothing is going out of your pocket. If a person deserves relief, you have to give him relief," he opined.This is the only way to improve access to justice and keep the faith of people alive in judiciary, he added..Former Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar remarked that judges usually become pragmatic and that affects the quality of work in judicial system.We are very happy when some cases get adjourned since such cases block the other cases, Muralidhar opined..Traditionally when you begin as a judge you are very idealistic and want to do a lot of work, he further said."You want to do a lot of work...from Bar you have watched system for a while and you know which are the points where the system is weak, needs improvement," Muralidhar said.However, you don't anticipate the number of cases you are going to hear, he added."If you list more than 40 matters it is inhuman for anyone to expect to keep same level of concentration to be able to deal with those 40 cases," he said. .He further referred to the US judiciary where judges hear fewer than 45 cases a year allowing them time to reflect and deliberate. Consequently, he said that he has often suggested that in a five-day work week, one day should be dedicated to judgment writing."You need a break. You reserve one matter (for judgment) today, next day another and by the end of the month you have a pile of ten matters. You have gone distant from that matter and that leads to putting it off," he said.Read what former CJI UU Lalit said here.Read what retired Justice R Basant said here..[Watch full event below]