Former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, at an India Today Conclave on Thursday criticised the judiciary, saying it is in a "ramshackled" state. "If you go to court, you don’t get a verdict, all you do is wash your dirty linen," he added.
Further criticising the judicial system, he said, "How important the judiciary is as a constitutional body need not be emphasized. You want a 5 trillion-dollar economy, but your judiciary is ramshackled."
Gogoi said that subordinate courts in India added about 60 lakh new cases to their workload in 2020. Similarly, the figure of pending cases in High Courts have risen by about three lakh and the Supreme Court admitted 6,000-7,000 new cases in the previous year. This implies that there are about 4 crore pending cases in the subordinate courts, a little over 44 lakh cases in the High Courts, and about 70,000 in the Supreme Court, the Rajya Sabha member said.
He called upon the judiciary to come with a roadmap to improve the efficiency of India's justice delivery system. "The roadmap I have in mind is have the right man for the job. You don't appoint judges the same way you appoint officers in the government. To judge is a full-time commitment. It is a passion. There are no working hours. It is a 24/7 job," he said.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has on Sunday said Gogoi’s statement on the judicial system was "shocking".
"Last week I read that the country's judicial system is the best. The statement was made by the Prime Minister in a meeting with Supreme Court judges. Obviously, we all felt happy about it but the remarks of Gogoi who is also the former CJI and was nominated by the central government in the Parliament, are shocking. I don’t know if, in a way, he (Gogoi) tried to bring out the truth but it is certainly a matter of concern for all," Pawar said.
