Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Every person associated with judiciary should make efforts to provide simple, accessible and speedy justice to people, said President Droupadi Murmu while laying the foundation stone of new building of Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur on Wednesday.
She said that about 4.5 crore cases were pending in lower courts across the country and some of them were 20 to 30 years old. She was happy to note that the MPHC has launched a special campaign ‘25 DEBT’ to dispose of cases pending for decades in the courts under which judges of the district judiciary have been told to dispose of the 25 oldest cases.
India is a country of 'Panch-Parmeshwar' and the concept of justice was present in our rural system from the beginning, the president said. The alternative dispute resolution system should be strengthened further which would make the process cheaper and easier, and also reduce the burden on the judiciary, she said.
The decision given by the Jabalpur High Court in favour of protection of life and personal liberty in the ADM Jabalpur vs. Shivkant Shukla case was over-ruled by the Supreme Court in 1976. In 2017, the SC changed its decision and the basic principles of the earlier decision given by the Jabalpur High Court in favour of fundamental rights have been re-established by the Supreme Court. Thus, in the history of Indian judiciary, the name of Jabalpur has become a symbol of the progressive journey of the justice system.
The President noted that the new building would be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. She was happy to note that a separate Bar Room is proposed for women advocates. She said that this arrangement would be convenient not only for woman advocates but also for woman litigants.
Governor Mangubhai Patel expressed that the High Court shall take initiative to provide judgements in other regional language along with English language.
