CJI Gogoi: Topic of 'pendency of cases' used to pull down the institution

Outgoing Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday touched upon the topic of huge "pendency of cases" in the courts across the country and said that the topic is extensively used to pull down the institution.

"Challenge that has been foisted at us, at all levels of the national discourse, is the topic of 'pendency'. It is nothing more than a reckless use of that word...it is used for motivated onslaughts on our institution and to pull us down," said Chief Justice Gogoi while addressing high court judges and judicial officers via video conferencing.

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He said that an in-house study revealed that no less than 48% of "so-called pendency figures" in criminal cases relating to matters where the process awaits appearance or production of the accused. "Similarly, as much as 23 per cent of pendency figures on the civil side relates to matters which are fixed for 'appearance of parties'," Chief Justice Gogoi added.

He contended that the institution tried to deliver much more than what is reasonably possible. "Yet, today each of us is required to deal with new challenges, which unfortunately arise from within and outside of our court complexes. Within our court complexes, there is an increasing indifference to the decorum and discipline," he said.

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Justice Gogoi said that the dignity of the Institution has reached new lows in the recent past, as rank hooliganism and intimidatory behaviour has become the order of the day in some pockets of the court system. "This has to be acknowledged so that its vicious designs are defeated and the glory of our Institution stands uncompromised," he stated.

The CJI also called upon the high courts, positioned as the Guardian authority, to be watchful of the state of affairs at the high court level as well as the District and the sub-ordinate levels. Gogoi took charge as the Chief Justice of India on October 3, 2018, and is set to retire on November 17. 

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(with ANI inputs)