Corruption in lower courts eroding faith of litigants: CJ Iftikhar

Saturday June 25, 2011

KARACHI: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry says lack of supervision of the subordinate courts is one of the major reasons of delay in cases while ineffectiveness of lower courts forces many litigants to approach the Supreme Court for relief.

Addressing a high-level meeting on effective implementation of the National Judicial Policy (NJP), attended by judges of the Supreme Court, chief justices of all the high courts and judges of the Sindh High Court, the chief justice stressed the need for strengthening the surveillance system of courts, especially at district level, and further enhancing the accountability mechanism.
“We have reached at a point where accountability should be done on our own,” he observed. He said the judiciary had to examine as to whether it was a failure of the system or lack of enforcement, and who was to blame for the lack of efficiency on the part of subordinate courts or lack of supervision on the part of high courts.
The chief justice said the National Judicial Policy provides a path for reforming the administration of justice in the country in a manner to realise the goal of ensuring expeditious and inexpensive justice for all by activating the existing resources.
He said that the National Judicial Policy has although evolved an effective mechanism for administration of justice, yet it has been observed that goals have not yet been achieved. “This is the time for realisation and to account for what was to be done and what is being done. This is the time to step forward and assume our roles and duties. Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, tireless efforts and passionate concern of dedicated individuals,” he observed.
Referring to the rape of a girl, whose case is pending for the last six years without any progress, the chief justice said this was just one example which came to limelight and expressed the fear that many identical cases were pending before the courts, negating the tall claims of expeditious and qualitative dispensation of justice.
Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed that such cases are adversely affecting the image of the judiciary and exposing loopholes in the monitoring mechanism. “It seems that presiding officers absolutely have not shown interest in deciding such cases,” he said.
The chief justice observed that high courts undoubtedly judge the work of the subordinate judicial officers through their judgments that come during the appeal or revision and by the general reputation enjoyed by these officers in their districts. However, he said this control is not substitute for the direct supervision as provided by the Constitution and other prevailing legislation, saying Article 203 of the Constitution unequivocally provides that each high court shall supervise and control all courts subordinate to it. Besides, he said there are elaborative provisions in the Civil Procedure Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and high courts rules and orders that duty bound the chief justices and judges of the high courts to actively supervise the subordinate judiciary through inspection and surprise visits of the subordinate courts.
The CJ stressed the need for an efficient and speedy court system to decide cases without the strict oversight of the higher judiciary. “Dispensation of justice is the most serious affair,” he observed and said the rights and entitlements of the people are at issue before the courts, which have to be determined in accordance with the mandate of the Constitution by applying utmost care and caution.
He observed that corrupt practices on part of the judicial officers and the court staff have lowered the confidence of litigant public in judicial system and to curb this menace, the policy provides an exhaustive mechanism, which includes establishment of a cell for eradication of corruption from the judiciary under the supervision of the chief justice of high courts, monitoring the performance of district and sessions judges by appointing a judge of high court and conducting surprise visits and inspections of courts, establishment of a committee headed by sessions judges and bar president to curb corruption of court staff, etc.
The chief justice expressed the hope that the situation could be improved if the chief justices of the high courts and their team members ensured the implementation of the National Judicial Policy through strict and efficient monitoring, adding it should be kept in mind that justice should not only be done but it must also be seen to have been done.
“It has to be strong enough to shoulder the structure of the state not only from its own location but it has to provide strength to the other pillars as well,” he observed, adding that inner strength of the judiciary will enable it to play its role in the governance of the country. “The court of conscience is higher court than the courts of justice and it supersedes all other courts,” he observed.
The chief justice said that the NJP meeting will critically examine the data of criminal cases received from district and sessions judges and subordinate courts as well as special courts, including anti-terrorism courts, accountability courts and banking courts and the basic idea for this exercise is to identify the loopholes in the monitoring system and evolve strategies for effective implementation of the policy to meet the expectation of the litigants.

Pakistan News Service - PakTribune