Over 50% of state’s cases in 4 districts, prioritise disposal of cases, says Gujarat HC Chief Justice

The inaugural event at the Pandit Dindayal Auditorium in Ahmedabad had Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat HC CJ Kumar in attendance along with other judges of the Gujarat HC. Supreme Court judges Justice MR Shah was present physically at the inauguration while Justices Bela Trivedi and JB Pardiwala joined virtually.

Addressing judicial officers present and other dignitaries, Chief Justice Kumar said, “Principal district judges have enormous responsibilities both on judicial as well as administrative side and they cannot forget that they are the agents in making the courts more responsible to the litigant public. On my taking charge as the Chief Justice of Gujarat (High Court) on October 13, 2021, I learnt that the judicial officers in the state had been inactive or not functional. From the said date, I started interacting with several judicial officers to revive the association so that it becomes not only functional but also useful to all the judicial officers and act as a bridge between judicial officers and the high court administration.”

Justice JB Pardiwala of the Supreme Court ,however, said, “The merit of a judge should not be assessed on the basis of disposals alone” and rather what is important is the “way he/she functions.” He said that the Indian judicial system is “constantly exposed” to new challenges and has to survive a world where “the only real cetainity is the circumstances of tomorrow will not be the same as those of today”. “Judges of the district judiciary can be termed as the root of the judicial system, it is the bedrock on which stands the entire edifice of justice,” Justice Pardiwala said.

Citing pendency of cases in Gujarat, CJ Kumar stated that there are over 89,80,236 cases pending with Ahmedabad rural and urban combined comprising 28.2 percent of the pending cases and districts of Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot combined comprising 22.85 percent of the pending cases, adding that over 51 percent of total pending cases are pending in these four jurisdictions.

“The officers of these four districts will have to ponder over ways and means in which this docket explosion in these districts can be curtailed,” CJ Kumar added.