Chief Justice HL Dattu, on Saturday lamented that the high courts across the country are dragging their feet over recruitment of judges even after the Supreme Court had directed all the high courts and states to quickly fill up over 2000 vacancies in order to clear ‘a monstrous backlog’ of nearly 3 crore cases in the lower courts of the country. Justice Dattu castigated the high court’s approach to the apex court’s order and went as far as saying that the high courts’ attitude appears contrary to the directives of the Supreme Court. Justice Dattu issued a stern warning to the high courts to seriously consider the observations made by the apex court and to comply with those at the earliest. He went as far as stating that if needed the registrar generals would be changed and others brought in who would comply with the apex court’s directives.
In November 2014 the Supreme Court had ordered the high courts to consider and pass appropriate orders for reservation in the cadre of civil judges but this order was ignored by most high courts. Justice Dattu made special mention of the Karnataka High Court which was dragging its feet over recruitment of judges. It is a fact that the number of cases in this country are simply piling up even while lawyers seek unnecessary adjournments and put their clients through harrowing experiences by their unpreparedness, taking as they do more cases than they can handle. The entire justice delivery system needs a robust overhaul if people are to see justice delivered in their lifetimes, which is often not the case. Rape cases for instance are proceeding at snail’s pace and the quaint laws that when rape is committed by a tribal on another tribal then the case should lie with the District Council Courts needs to be revisited. This was because of an arbitrary order passed by a High Court judge here. There are far too many cases of rape and molestation lying with the Council Courts over which there is hardly any supervision and which appear to be beyond the purview of the Supreme Court of the country. This is a serious lacuna which needs to be addressed by a PIL in the apex court.
