‘Judges should also be made accountable to the public’

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily is a man in a hurry. Mandated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to provide a roadmap for judicial reforms, he has embarked on chalking out a ‘120-day agenda’ for the same. To realise this, he is putting in 14-15 hours a day. In an exclusive interview with B S Arun and Pratap Patnaik of Deccan Herald, he elaborated on the agenda. Excerpts:

No public authority should be immune from being prosecuted for committing an offence. The Judges Inquiry and Accountability Bill is a must. They should also be made accountable to the public. The Bill deals with that. It is a serious issue which is on the agenda of the government.


Well, it is a roadmap for 120 days. But I am going to do it much earlier — by Sept 30. It will be an action plan for short, medium and long terms. This action plan will enumerate a two-pronged strategy to not only bring down the number of pending cases (3.5 crore at present) but also to reduce the number of litigations coming to the courts.

Stress will be on accountability in judiciary, improving infrastructure, reducing pendency, etc. Alternative dispute redressal system will be set up so that the Central and state governments do not rush to the courts for redressal of their disputes.

More morning and evening courts will be set up all over the country just as in Delhi and Gujarat. The pending vacancies of five Supreme Court judges, 251 high court judges and 3,129 lower court magistrates will be filled up soon.

If need be, some retired judges would be asked to preside over fast-track courts and Lok Adalats to clear the backlog. In order to check more litigations coming to the courts, more tribunals, fast track-courts, and Lok Adalats would be set up. The government will also review the system of multi-level revision of a case. The disposal of cases will be made time-bound.

Yes. I know there are criticisms that judges in India make their own appointments since 1993. The names of the judges are recommended for appointment by a Supreme Court collegium. I need to take the judiciary into confidence; I will discuss the issue with the judiciary to make the appointment process more objective. If there is a need, we will have to make a law to make it more objective and this is a part of the judicial reform. Judges all over the world don’t appoint themselves. The question is either we go back to pre-1993 or evolve a consensus.

ideally they should be, but i don't think its going to make a big difference!

Fighting corruption always depends on political WILL.