New chief justice to focus on tackling huge backlog of cases

Ranjan Gogoi, who took his oath as India’s new chief justice yesterday, indicated that he intends to tackle the huge backlog of of cases awaiting decisions in Indian courts.There were an estimated 33mn cases pending in Indian courts in January 2018, according to the National Judicial Data Grid.Gogoi said he would be focusing on filling about 5,000 vacancies in the subordinate judiciary.His comments came at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to felicitate him on his elevation as the chief justice of India.Underscoring filling of vacancies in subordinate courts, Gogoi said: “We will try to do it in three-four months.”He said mere filling of vacancies would not solve the problem.“It is a solution, but not the whole solution. The solution lies with right (choice of) people and will come only if the office maintains its dignity,” he said.The chief justice’s remarks were in reference to Attorney General K K Venugopal’s oft-repeated suggestions to increase the retirement age of judges in the Supreme Court and high courts.The AG has also advocated significantly increasing the salaries of judges.The chief justice said: “You may increase the retirement age of the judges and also increase their salaries as much you want. But that would not solve the problem unless dignity of the institution is maintained.”Responding to SCBA president Vikas Singh describing him as a “strict” man, the chief justice said: “I am what I am. I can’t change.”On cases demanding urgent hearings, Gogoi said that he along with his colleagues were trying to evolve a system which can produce better results.“We are trying to reduce the time in the filing of cases and their listing (before the court). We are trying to introduce a system where cases don’t get dropped. If we succeed, perhaps a large section of mentioning will go away altogether.”Earlier in the day,  Gogoi was administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind at a function in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former prime ministers Manmohan Singh, H D Deve Gowda Congress leader Malikarjun Kharge were also present.Gogoi is also expected to bring in more transparency into the way the rosters are decided in the court.He is one of the four judges who held an unprecedented press conference in January when they raised grievances regarding the functioning of the Supreme Court, especially then-chief justice Dipak Misra’s allocation of important cases to other judges.At the centre of the controversy was the assigning of a case demanding a probe into a judge’s death to a junior judge of the Supreme Court.Judge B H Loya, who was trying a case of murder against ruling Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, died of a cardiac arrest in December 2014 but some lawyers and family members alleged a cover-up.The Supreme Court has dismissed the demand for a probe.Gogoi, 63, the son of a former chief minister of Assam, is the first Supreme Court chief justice from India’s north-eastern region.He is one of the few Supreme Court judges who have made their assets public.He does not own a house or a vehicle and has no outstanding debts.