This Article is From Aug 25, 2016

'I Can Feel Chief Justice Thakur's Pain': Ex SC Judge Santosh Hegde

'I Can Feel Chief Justice Thakur's Pain': Ex SC Judge Santosh Hegde

Ex SC Judge Santosh Hegde has said CJI Thakur and PM Modi must sit down and discuss judges' appointment.

Hyderabad: Former Supreme Court Judge N Santosh Hegde has favoured a one-on-one meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Justice of India TS Thakur to discuss the issue of filling up of vacancies in higher judiciary.

"I am sure he (Justice Thakur) feels the pinch of shortage of judges in the superior courts. Rather than making it an issue (expressing disappointment) on Independence Day, it would have been appropriate if he sat across with the Prime Minister and decided (on the issue of judicial appointments)," Mr Hegde said.

After the Prime Minister's Independence Day address, Chief Justice Thakur had expressed his disappointment that there was no mention of the issue of judicial appointments. His comments had come close on the heels of a stern message by a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice to the Centre for failing to execute transfer of judges ordered by the court.  

"I understand how one who heads the judiciary must feel. I feel his sentiments and emotions are genuine, but there are ways and means of bringing it out. There has been a line of confrontation recently between the government and the judiciary. You have to sit across the table and talk about it," Mr Hegde said.

Earlier today Justice Thakur had said that the workload of courts had increased manifold, making it difficult to deliver speedy justice. In the past he has said that India needed 70,000 judges just to clear pending cases. He also said around 170 proposals for appointment of high court judges were now pending with the government.

While the Law Commission of India in 1987 had suggested having 44,000 judges to effectively tackle the then number of pending cases, the country today has only 18,000 judges.
.