Going ahead with the mammoth task of revamping the judiciary to celebrate the golden jubilee year next year, Gujarat high court has initiated a drive to recruit judges from top to bottom level. The collegium of the high court has already sent recommendations to the Supreme Court to fill 12 posts in the high court itself.
"The high court is running with 26 judges against the approved strength of the 42 judges," said acting chief justice MS Shah while briefing media persons on Monday. He said they have recommended six judges from the judiciary by way of promotion and six names from the lawyers’ fraternity. "We have an approved strength of 1,050 judges in subordinate courts but at present we have 822 judges. Recently, we recruited 122 senior civil judges and 22 district judges. The process to recruit 106 magistrates and 54 district judges is on," said Shah.
Giving details about the disposal of voluminous cases, the acting chief justice said, "Though we have fewer judges, the focus of the state judiciary is to lower the backlog as early as possible. Each judge is disposing of an average 1,200 cases a year.’’
The judiciary has maintained a track record to dispose of more cases than the number of new cases filed. "In the previous year, 10.44 lakh cases were disposed of against the filing of 9.71 lakh new cases," Shah said.
Corruption in the judiciary is also a focus area of the high court and in the past 15 months, there have been 70 judges who have faced coercive action from the HC. "We have suspended 25 judges while 22 judges were given premature retirement. Some 260 judges of the fast-track court were also relieved from work," he said, adding, "at present, inquiry against 26 judges is pending and the disciplinary committee of the HC is considering the case of 17 judges, whose inquiries have been concluded."
To take Gujarat’s judiciary to new heights, the HC has been provided three times more budget. Registrar-general PP Bhatt is looking after all the projects under the guidance of the chief justice.
“We are starting a single-window system next year. One can file petitions, access orders and know the case status from one kiosk in the court,” the acting chief justice said adding, “litigants will know the status of their cases through SMS.” Almost all district courts will get new separate buildings and infrastructure. Justice-at-doorstep system is going to be launched in January.
“We have identified five tribal districts where the judges will be provided mobile vans to go to far-flung villages to handle cases,” justice Shah said.
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