The electronic LED display board beside the ‘E’ gate of the high court will be inaugurated by Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan, its Registrar General Rai Chatterjee said. A ‘Justice Clock’ will be installed at the Calcutta High Court on January 22, displaying the status of cases in subordinate courts of West Bengal. The ‘Justice Clock’ will show the number of cases pending before all district and subordinate courts in the State and the status of each. It will also display the ranking of the courts, based on their performance in disposing of the cases.
Prior Facts:
There are at least 22.81 lakh cases pending before different courts in the state, of which 17.7 lakh are criminal suits, according to the National Judicial Data Grid. Of the total pending cases in the state, including civil and criminal, over three lakh have been pending for more than 10 years, as per the grid. At the high court, 2, 28,161 cases are currently pending before the Calcutta High Court as on November 30, the data provided by its administration said. Of these, 1,70,039 are civil and 38,302 are criminal cases pending before the appellate side of the high court, while 19,820 are original side civil matters. One of the senior official of the court quoted that, it would be helpful then for such a situation.
On December 04, 2019 addressing a gathering at a National Law Day event in New Delhi, Modi said competition helps in faster development. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday suggested installing “justice clocks”, which would rank the best performing courts of the country, at various court premises to encourage competition among judges in disposing of cases.
Key Features:
- The ‘Justice Clock’ will show the number of cases pending before all district and subordinate courts in the state and the status of each.
- It will also display the ranking of the courts, based on their performance in disposing of the cases.
- The electronic LED display board beside the ‘E’ gate of the high court will be inaugurated by Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan.
- The Centre has submitted a proposal to the 15th Finance Commission for award of Rs 436 crore for installation of Justice Clocks in 3,350 court premises during 2020-25.
- The law ministry has already requested all the high courts to install Justice Clock.
- It was first installed in the Jaisalmer House in Delhi where the justice department of law ministry is located.
- Justice Clocks are meant for creation of public awareness about the disposal & pendency of cases & general progress in the justice sector.
- The LED display across all the 24 High Courts will show the same thing.
- The electronic display board installed at the justice department in Delhi highlights the citizen centric services of ongoing projects such as e-Courts projects & information regarding the top district & subordinate courts which dispose of highest number of cases.
- The idea of Justice Clock had come from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had suggested for using the electronic system to rank performance of each of the HCs & subordinate courts, create a competition among them to rank higher.
- The installation of Justice Clocks in all high courts of the country was approved by the Committee of Supreme Court in its meeting held on 20th February 2018.
Edited by J. Madonna Jephi
Approved & Published – Sakshi Raje
