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It’s easy to delay trials in
India, says Chief Justice
WSN Network
NEW DELHI:
The
Sikhs, of course, know this too well. The guilty of 1984 massacre of
Sikhs roam free, and one even became a minister in
India,
but the trials in courts move at a snail's pace. Now, none other
than India's Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said on Tuesday: "It is
easy to delay criminal trials in India." A whopping 2.5 crore cases
are pending in trial courts; of these more than 1.8 crore are
criminal cases. The CJI made the comments while dealing with a PIL
seeking to fast-track cases against the high and mighty and seemed
reluctant to fast-track cases on the basis of personalities involved
in the crime.
Advocate
Prashant Bhushan said if the cases involving important public
functionaries — like MPs and secretaries — were put on the
fast-track, and the high courts started monitoring the progress of
trial in the subordinate courts, the pendency could be tackled in
two years time. But disagreeing with Bhushan, Justice Balakrishnan
said: "Criminal trials are getting delayed because the accused
challenges every order of the trial court in the HC and fights it
even up to the SC. It is very easy under our system to get trials
delayed. What can HC do?" An exasperated Bhushan, stung by the
unusually candid statement from the CJI, said: "If it is very easy
to delay the trials, then we need to do something urgently to
address this."
17 September 2008
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