Supreme Court to organise national conference to address pendency, other issues faced by District Judiciary

The Supreme Court of India will organise a national conference February 1, Saturday, to address the issues faced by district judiciary including identifying bottlenecks in case disposal and devising strategies to reduce backlog of cases at different levels..The conference will include four technical sessions following introductory remarks by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna. The first session, chaired by the CJI, will be an endeavour to bring together the experience and knowledge of each High Court and chart the course for judicial reforms for efficient and timely case disposal, and narrowing the gulf between institution and disposal of cases. The session will deliberate upon implementation of Policy and Action Plan- 2024 prepared by the National Court Management Systems (NCMS) Committee, identifying bottlenecks in case disposal and devising strategies to reduce backlog of cases at different levels. It will also address the issues regarding the functioning of family courts and special courts and explore the feasibility of having evening courts.Expeditious disposal of cases through Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms and similar issues faced by the High Courts will also be discussed..The second sessions chaired by Justice BR Gavai will focus on ushering uniformity in case categorization and leveraging technology for justice delivery. The session will discuss uniform nomenclature and code for each case category, incorporating the use of information technology such as -Digital Courts Software, e-filing, virtual courts, video conferencing, transcription facility etc. along with effective use of e- Sewa Kendras/ e-Kiosks. .Justice Surya Kant will chair the third session aimed at addressing issues pertaining to human resources in the District Judiciary. Timely and institutionalized recruitment of judicial officers and court staff, continual recruitment/ empanelment of public prosecutors/ legal aid counsel/ legal aid defence counsel and creation of a permanent IT and data cadre in all High Courts and District Courts will be deliberated upon during the session.The concluding session will be marked by its focus on enhancing professional proficiency. Chaired by the CJI, this session will discuss career progression and continuous performance evaluation of judicial officers, mentoring of judicial officers by inspecting judges as well as State Judicial Academies, establishing common curriculum for training, capacity building and continuing education of judicial officers..[Read Press Release]