The Supreme Court of India organized a National Conference on Addressing Issues Faced by the State Judiciary on February 1 to discuss challenges faced by the State judiciary, especially district courts, and to explore solutions..The conference was attended by Supreme Court and High Court judges, district judges from across the country, and senior officials from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Law and Justice..The conference featured four technical sessions:Case Backlog and Disposal – Chaired by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, along with Justices Abhay S Oka, BV Nagarathna and Dipankar Datta, this session focused on bridging the gap between case filing and disposal, identifying bottlenecks, identifying case types that flood judicial dockets and strategies to reduce the backlog of cases at different levels.Technology and Case Categorization – Led by Justice BR Gavai, with Justices PS Narasimha and KV Viswanathan, the discussions revolved around standardizing case classification across courts and using technology to improve judicial efficiency.Judicial Appointments and Infrastructure – Chaired by Justice Surya Kant, with Justices JK Maheshwari and Sudhanshu Dhulia, this session addressed the need for timely recruitment of judicial officers, continual recruitment or empanelment of public prosecutors, legal aid counsel, defence legal aid counsel, and IT staff, along with measures to ensure transparency in transfers of judicial officers and measures to enhance objectivity in the process of recommending suitable candidates from the district judiciary for elevation to High Courts.Training and Accountability – Led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, alongside Justices Vikram Nath, MM Sundresh, and Bela Trivedi, the discussions covered career progression and continuous performance evaluation of judicial officers, mentoring of judicial officers by inspecting judges, judicial training, and mechanisms for ensuring accountability of judicial officers and court staff..The conference was intended to give all stakeholders within the judiciary a chance to come together and engage in a meaningful dialogue to addresses the challenges faced by the State judiciary, including high case pendency in courts across India. On a related note, on January 21, the Supreme Court indicated that it was contemplating the relaxation of conditions for the appointment of ad hoc judges (temporary judges) to High Courts in order to tackle the mounting pendency of criminal appeals.To this end, a Special Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant had said that it could modify certain conditions outlined in an April 2021 judgment for the appointment of ad hoc judges.The Court had added that once ad hoc judges are appointed, criminal appeals that are usually listed before Division Benches of High Courts could be heard by a Bench comprising of a regular single-judge and an ad hoc judge.Days later, on January 30, the top court passed an order allowing High Courts can recommend the appointment of retired judges on ad-hoc basis to tackle pendency and clear the backlog of pending criminal appeals..Allahabad High Court flooded with litigation, yet working with 50% vacancies: Supreme Court
