Chief Justice HL Dattu seeks speedy disposal in cases of crimes against women, minorities

NEW DELHI: A conference of chief justices of all the high courts beginning on Friday will discuss ways and means to speedily dispose of cases involving crimes against women and marginalised sections of society. Further the higher judiciary wants to devise a mechanism to fast-track corruption cases.

The conference will be inaugurated by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) HL Dattu. Besides the High Courts' Chief Justices, some of the senior judges of the Supreme Court will also attend the event. On Sunday, state chief ministers will attend the event.

The judges will lay special emphasis on "fast-tracking" cases of "crime against women, children, senior citizens, differently abled and all the marginalised sections of the society" as per the conference agenda. The Chief Justices will also discuss how to cut down delay caused in cases involving juveniles.

A mechanism to ensure expeditious disposal of cases registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act is also on the conference agenda. Highly placed sources told ET that the conference will deliberate on whether special courts need to be created for fast-tracking such cases or more judges need to be appointed. The failure of evening courts, meant to deal with the backlog of cases, will also be discussed.

Another significant issue which will be discussed is that of ‘e-Courts'. The e-Courts project was conceptualised on the basis of the "National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in the Indian Judiciary – 2005" submitted by e-Committee (Supreme Court of India).

Essentially e-Court involves widespread use of video-conference, including recording of evidence and pronouncing judgements.

Apart from these, chief justices will present papers on "financial autonomy for high courts, computerisation of courts" and "post-retiral benefits for judges".

A national vision and mission for the next year will also be finalised.

ET was the first to report in January that judicial reform proposals were discussed by the country's top judges at a preparatory conference for the CJ meet held on December 25 last, an effort led by Chief Justice of India HL Dattu.

The proposals discussed included use of e-mail to send summons and notices to be sent by email, case progress to be updated via text messages, and innovative dispute redressal systems to take some burden off courts. The thrust of the discussion was on how to end litigation within a 3-5 year time frame.