What holds the government from making the much needed judicial reforms?

NEW DELHI: Legal reform is one of the priorities of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, an intent it has reiterated through the President's address to the joint session of Parliament on Monday. However, in the last nine months the government has not been able to achieve much progress on judicial reforms.

The much debated National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), which replaced the Supreme Court collegium through a constitutional amendment, has been kept in abeyance for the lack of government's will to notify it.

The unofficial reason, of course, is a pending litigation in the SC challenging the NJAC. But, sources said nothing prevents the government from notifying the NJAC and going ahead with framing of its rules and procedures.

The government had through recent communications to the chief justices of high courts impressed upon the need to improve the criminal justice system by strictly implementing the amendments made in the Code of Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure Code.

One of the issues raised was on repeated adjournments given by courts delaying the process of justice delivery and thus increasing the pendency list. A proposal was discussed to link adjournments with the judges appraisal system.

However, all high courts have their own independent appraisal system and there has been no headway in bringing uniformity in judges' appraisal system across the country.

The key to expediting justice delivery is to have a full strength subordinate judiciary. Currently, there are more than 4,400 vacancies against a sanctioned strength of 19,518. The high courts too have a similar problem. Against a sanctioned strength of 984 judges there are at least 348 vacancies.

One of the proposals of the government was to frame an All India Judicial Service on the lines of civil services, particularly, after several HCs told the government that one of the main difficulties faced by them was finding suitable candidates who can satisfy the eligibility conditions and are able to clear the written examinations.

However, despite repeated attempts the government has been unable to convince the higher judiciary on constituting such a service for the recruitment of judicial officers.