CJI expresses concern over pendency, attributes it to ‘fear psychosis’ of district courts in granting bail
LUCKNOW: Calling upon the trial courts to pay attention to the cases so as to find their solution, thereby, reducing the burden of growing pendency, Chief Justice of India Dr DY Chandrachud attributed the menace to the 'fear psychosis' in district courts towards granting bail.
Addressing a gathering of the legal fraternity after inaugurating an arbitration centre in Prayagraj on Saturday, the CJI said that the solution of problems should begin at the level of trial courts.
“There is a need to pay attention. Many such cases, which should be settled in the trial court itself, are reaching the Supreme Court. Due to non-availability of bail in small cases, people are coming to the Supreme Court and the pressure there is increasing,” observed the CJI.
He claimed that judges had constantly been raising concerns over criminal appeals taking too long to be decided. The CJI wondered why the bar was so eager to file a plea for bail but was not ready to argue criminal appeals. He stressed on the need to sit together to resolve the issue because it was doing a disservice to the state.
“What happens because of large pendency of criminal appeal, particularly in the high court and the Supreme Court, is that judges are compelled to grant bail, no matter how heinous the offence, because of the realisation that if you don’t grant bail today, the person will probably die in jail or may have served out the sentence by the time the criminal appeal came up,” said the CJI, adding that such a trend was not good for the system either.
Stressing that the 'problem of pendency' had not gone out of control and several states, like Tamil Nadu, had found a solution, the CJI said that there was ‘fear psychosis’ in the judiciary at district level.
“Why is the district judiciary so fearful in granting bail? Over a period of time, we have created a culture of subordination between the high court and the district judiciary,” he observed.
“Let us tell the nation what the Supreme Court does, what its judges do, let the community know the nature of the work, as we are criticised often for vacations. People say ‘inko chhutti bahut zyada milti hai’ (they get too many days off), but don’t realise that judges work all seven days of the week,” he said.
The CJI also released a book titled ‘Courts of Uttar Pradesh’, carrying details and outlining the historical perspective of district courts in UP.