'dna' exclusive: Public relations officer mooted for courts to ease pressure on judiciary

A committee led by the Chief Justice of India has recommended, among other measures, that a public relations officer be assigned to every court for the convenience of litigants.
Currently, there is no mechanism in Indian courts to help litigants get answers even to mundane queries, such as the procedure of filing cases, appealing judgments, inspection of case files, etc.

To address this issue as well as to reduce the judiciary’s overall burden, the government had last year set up the National Court Management System (NCMS) committee, headed by CJI Altamas Kabir.

The committee was asked to identify measures to dispose of the 3-crore cases pending in various courts. It was also asked to suggest proposals to help reduce the time taken for judgments in every case. On an average, every judge of a court disposes of 1,372 cases in a year.

“For convenience of litigants, the PRO is required,” reads the NCMS committee’s draft report, which has been submitted to the law ministry.

“This (appointing a PRO for every court) is a positive signal for the judiciary as litigants are always hassled and run from pillar to post seeking answers to queries,” said justice SN Dhingra, former Delhi high court. “This will enable an easy and faster justice delivery system.”

According to the committee, “There is an urgent need to make the judicial system five-plus free (free of cases more than five years old). There is an equally urgent need to shorten the average lifecycle of all cases – not only time spent within each court, but also the total time a case spends in the entire judicial system — to no more than one year in each court.”

It adds that there is a need to systematically maintain and continuously seek to enhance the quality and responsiveness of justice. The committee has also sought a human resource development strategy to set standards for selection and training of judges of subordinate courts. “Five year development plans are needed for courts. Judge-case ratio too needs to be worked out at all judicial levels,” the draft states.

Emphasising the need of measuring judicial officers’ performance, the committee states, “Recruitment policy, standard staffing patterns and training policies for staff working in courts needs to be settled. Posts of court managers are necessary for professional working of registries. Timely recruitment and promotions of judicial officers and staff too is necessary for effective court management.”

Welcoming the development strategy, a sessions judge in Delhi’s Patiala House Court told dna that judges face immense pressure in disposing off pending cases.

“At the end of each month, we have to send a report showing our rate of disposal. This mechanism will help us to perform in an organised manner,” he said on condition of anonymity.