Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Supreme Court Judge Justice Vikram Nath said that the conviction rate is less than 1 percent and cases are pending for the last 30 years in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Justice Nath was addressing the first academic session of the 10th Biennial Madhya Pradesh State Judicial Officers Conference at Ravindra Bhavan on Saturday. The main object of the session was to reduce pendency by 2047 on completion of 100 years of Independence.
“When the state cannot prosecute, then there is no use of carrying on cases. It only increases the pendency. Many times, we spoke to the state officials to withdraw the cases when there is no scope of any results. It is futile to continue with such cases,” he added. Nath further said, “There is a shortage of judges in the country. There is one judge per 50,000 people in the country. There must be recruitment, while maintaining quality to reduce pendency of the cases.”
‘System works for affluent class’
MP High Court judge justice Vivek Agrawal said, “According to Transparency International, which monitors corruption around the world, after the fourth pay recommendation of 1986, corruption increased and transparency came down after a hike in salaries in the country. The system of our country is working for the benefit of the affluent class and even after so many years, the marginalised class of the society still is deprived of justice.”
‘Judicial officers must develop moral conscience’
SC judge Justice JK Maheshwari said, “Judicial officers are supposed to keep away from lust, anger, fear, desire and attachment to deliver quality justice. They should develop moral conscience. It helps in establishing the faith of the common man in the judicial system of the country.”
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