Chief Justice of India, D Y Chandrachud, has called for strengthening the infrastructure of Indian courts to manage the growing pendency of cases. Speaking at the 37th convocation of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, he paralleled the increasing trust and reliance people place on courts to that seen in hospitals, indicating that this trust leads to more cases being filed.
CJI Chandrachud highlighted the use of modern technologies such as Artificial Intelligence to make court verdicts more accessible by translating them into regional languages. This initiative has already seen significant progress with thousands of Supreme Court judgments being translated into Hindi and Punjabi, among other languages.
He also mentioned the implementation of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms like Lok Adalats, which recently resolved about 1,000 cases in five days. This approach, along with the extraordinary effort of 21 Supreme Court benches that heard around 4,000 cases during the summer vacationโdisposing of 1,170โillustrates the judiciary’s strategies to decrease the backlog.
The Chief Justice also addressed the adoption of live streaming for Supreme Court hearings as part of these technological advancements, enhancing transparency and public trust in the judicial process.
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On the issue of judicial vacancies, particularly in the district judiciary, CJI Chandrachud emphasized the urgent need to fill these positions to ensure the efficient functioning of the judiciary. Despite no vacancies in the Supreme Court, with all 34 positions filled during his tenure, he acknowledged challenges like those in the Allahabad High Court, which struggles with the infrastructure needed to support its full judicial strength of 160 judges.
