Measures which can be taken

♤ Improving infrastructure for quality justice- The Parliamentary Standing Committee which presented its report on Infrastructure Development and Strengthening of Subordinate Courts, suggested:

o States should provide suitable land for construction of court buildings etc. It should undertake vertical construction in light of shortage of land.

o Timeline set out for computerisation of all the courts, as a necessary step towards setting up of e-courts.

♤ Addressing the Issue of Vacancies- Ensure the appointments of the judges be done in an efficient way by arriving at an optimal judge strength to handle the cases pending in the system. The 120th Law Commission of India report for the first time, suggested a judge strength fixation formula.

o Supreme Court and High Courts should appoint efficient and experienced judges as Ad- hoc judges in accordance with the Constitution.

o All India Judicial Service, which would benefit the subordinate judiciary by increasing quality of judges and help reduce the pendency.

♤ Annual targets and action plans must be fixed for the judicial officers to dispose of old cases where accused is in custody for over two years.

♤ Setting standards of judicial recruitment examinations to improve the quality of district judges.

♤ Implement the concept of evening courts where the services of the retired judges may be taken along with the law graduates to train the young incumbents as well as reduce the pendency.

♤ 230th Law Commission in its report “reform in Judiciary” in 2009 recommended

o There must be full utilization of the court working hours and Grant of adjournment must be guided strictly by the provisions of Order 17 of the Civil Procedure Code.

o Cases of similar nature should be clubbed with the help of technology and used to dispose other such cases on a priority basis;

o Judges must deliver judgments within a reasonable time both in civil and criminal matters.

o Vacations in the higher judiciary must be curtailed by at least 10 to 15 days and the court working hours should be extended by at least half-an hour

o Lawyers must curtail prolix and repetitive arguments and length of the oral argument in any case should not exceed one hour and thirty minutes, unless the case involves complicated questions of law or interpretation of Constitution.

o Judgments must be clear and decisive and free from ambiguity, and should not generate further litigation.

♤ Strict regulation of adjournments and imposition of exemplary costs for seeking it on flimsy grounds especially at the trial stage and not permitting dilution of time frames specified in Civil Procedure Code.

♤ Better Court Management System & Reliable Data Collection: For this categorization of cases on the basis of urgency and priority along with bunching of cases should be done.

♤ Use of Information technology (IT) solutions- The use of technology for tracking and monitoring cases and in providing relevant information to make justice litigant friendly. A greater impetus should be given to

o Process reengineering- Involves redesigning of core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in productivity and quality by incorporating the use of technology in court rules. It will include:

o Electronic filing of cases: e-Courts are a welcome step in this direction, as they give case status and case history of all the pending cases across High courts and Subordinate courts bringing ease of access to information.

o Revamping of National Judicial Data Grid by introducing a new type of search known as elastic search, which is closer to the artificial intelligence.