He was talking at a felicitation ceremony held in the Bombay High Court lawns by the Advocates Association of Western India today evening. He was flanked by the attorney general of India Soli Sorabjee as a galaxy of justices including the acting Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Ashok Agarwal and lawyers were welcomed by the association.

``Tackling backlogs is the responsibility of all the three wings of a democracy, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary,'' he reminded and added that it was the executive's duties to create more courts. ChiefJustice Anand had sought information on the subordinate courts after he took over recently as the CJ and remarked that the state of Maharashtra had 250 vacancies in the judiciary. ``The subordinate judges are overworked, and if a judge who has to handle 100 cases daily were to just read out each case and allot dates to it, he would not be able to conduct any business,'' he observed.

The speech was an exposition on the various illnesses plaguing the judiciary as the CJ listed out the topics of discussion under ABCDEF, where A was for the problems of Access, B for the backlogs, C for credibility of the judiciary, D dealt with the duties of the bench and the bar, E on the expenditure on getting justice and F on the faculty of law.

He was however equally critical of judges who delayed matters by ``giving adjournments at the drop of a hat''. ``Judges need to do some heartsearching,'' he said, ``they are also answerable. Every judge is accountable to the people and his conscience. He is the conscience keeper ofthe Constitution''.

He also cautioned against a rampant use of the contempt proceedings and urged restraint and circumspection. ``The role of the judiciary is divine,'' he said, ``but the problem occurs when the judge thinks he is divine himself''.

He lauded the role of the Lok Adalats in dispensing speedy justice and said that around 76 lakh cases had been decided in LAs in all these years and a target of 10 lakh cases had been made for this year. ``By speedy justice, we also mean quality orders and proper procedures,'' he said. Of the target, he announced that already 7.5 lakh cases had been decided and three months are yet to go.

While he praised the Public Interest Litigations in bringing justice to the common man, he cautioned that the PIL should not become a Publicity or a Personal Interest Litigation.

Urging that the interpretation of law should be in tune with society's perceptions, he expressed satisfaction that the judiciary is taking steps to develop laws that reflect the developmentalstages of the country. ``The courts exist for the citizen,'' he stated.

While he steered clear of the recent reservation controversy in the judiciary, Iqbal Chagla, president of the Bombay Bar Association stressed that the merit and merit alone should be the criteria for recruitments at all levels of the judiciary. ``Reservation is for the political arena, there is no place for it in the legal system,'' he said.

Soli Sorabjee, attorney general of the country also chose to ignore the issue and urged that the judiciary should do away with systems that delay and subvert the rule of law.