To fast-track reforms, CJI seeks meet of CMs, HC chief justices a year ahead

NEW DELHI:In a departure from tradition, Chief Justice of India T S Thakur has asked the government to call a conference of high court chief justices and chief ministers a year ahead of schedule, in April this year. The request is part of an effort to fast-track judicial reforms and simplify court procedures in a time bound manner, particularly in the higher judiciary .
So far, the conference o chief justices (CJs) and chief ministers (CMs) has been a biennial affair, with the next meeting scheduled for April 2017 By then, however, CJI Thakur would have retired (he's due to retire on January 4, 2017). Given the urgency expressed by the CJI, and his desire to bring uniformity in court procedures across the country, the government is working on a concrete agenda, where in it plans to list measures initiated by some of the high courts -such as the Madhya Pradesh HC (see graphic) -for listing of a case to delivery of the judgement with minimal human interference.

The conference of CJs and CMs is billed as one of the most important events, where all policy-level decisions are discussed with the chief ministers and chief justices, who are responsible for implementing judicial reforms in states.

Ironically , the last two conferences, in 2013 and 2015, had identical agenda notes but little was achieved in terms of result. Though there was unanimity on most of the issues discussed, it hardly culminated in the reduction of pendency.