Independence and authority of judiciary not undermined since Modi became PM: Rijiju

Responding to a question of whether the government was interfering in the functioning of judiciary, Rijiju remarked on a lighter note that the same question should be asked the other way round as to whether the judiciary was interfering in government’s work. “One cannot look at independence of judiciary in isolation as there is independence of the Executive as well as the Legislature. According to the Constitution, no institution should cross the ‘laxman rekha’ and every institution needs to be respected…,” said the Law Minister.

“Since Narendra Modi became the PM, we have not done any such work to undermine the independence and authority of the judiciary. We are not just maintaining independence of the judiciary but we are also strengthening it further,” Rijiju said.

He further added that the due to the efforts taken by the government to create a robust infrastructure for the judiciary, the courts in India did not stop functioning even during Covid-19 pandemic.

Talking about how increasing pendency of court cases is the “biggest concern” for the country, Rijiju said, “There are around five crore pending cases in our country, which means that justice is also being delayed…It is a concern for a nation like ours.”

“As a law minister of the country, it is a challenging moment for me… It is not a good sign for the country,” said the BJP leader who added that the same concern has been voiced by members of the judiciary. Underscoring the need to use technology as the ‘biggest solution’ to reduce the pendency of cases, Rijiju heaped praises on the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud for taking steps to promote online hearing and e-filing of cases.

“Some high courts are, however, going slow on technology… Budget for the judiciary is not an issue,” he said.

Advocating the use of Indian languages in the Supreme Court and high courts, the Union Law Minister said, “Five high courts are using Hindi. We have instant translation and transcription facilities. We should think in Indian languages. Knowing foreign languages and speaking in English is fine, but thinking should be in Indian languages,” he said.

Rijiju also said there is a need for more women judges and hoped the collegium would look into the same.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who was present at the event, urged the Union Law Minister to look into the proposal to rename the Bombay High Court as Mumbai High Court. Shinde also informed him that the state government had recently decided to allot land in Bandra (east) for a new high court complex.