Cases pile up as courts overworked, understaffed, says apex court judge

A Supreme Court judge on Saturday attributed the delay in adjudication of pending cases to the "overworked and understaffed courts".

"The courts in India are overworked and understaffed due to which the cases hang fire for years. Also the courts are marred with problem of poor infrastructure, which 'acts as a barrier in fast disposal of the cases," Justice S S Nijjar said.

Presiding over concluding ceremony of Legal Literacy Youth Festival at Guru Nanak Bhawan here, Justice Nijjar stressed on engaging the youth in making the society aware about their basic legal rights.

Talking about Legal Services Authority Act, he said, "Its basic motive behind is to shed the load on Indian courts and provide people with an alternative route to justice."

He said that the country has laws to tackle almost every problem but they lack implementation. "A nation may have laws but only a nation with a system to let people know how to use those laws can progress. That is why we decided to take in students to spread legal literacy," he added.

Justice Nijjar who also laid the foundation stone of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centre and new Court block in District Court Complex, said 22 more such ADR centres will be established in Punjab in coming days.

He also said that "in the last 10 years, Punjab has been provided with best of the judicial infrastructure as per requirement with many new court complexes.'

Adressing the gathering, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice, A K Sikri, said, "Access to courts is not access to justice. Till the time an individual is not aware of legal rights, justice cannot prevail even in court. We have passed the laws but rights are not being implemented in reality. We have a long way to go in full implementation of laws and rights."

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