Attorney General (AG) of India R Venkataramani on Saturday said it is important that the government stops overloading the Supreme Court with endless statutory appeals.
The AG, speaking at the Constitution Day celebrations held at the Supreme Court, said: “It is important that the government stops overloading the Supreme Court with endless statutory appeals alongside seamless and huge flow of cases from High Courts. The conversion of the Supreme Court into a small causal court must stop…”.
Venkataramani said family courts should become family comfort institutions, and also there was a need for a settlement commission when it came to property law and more. He added governments have been discussing litigation policy for a long time, and that there was no reason for such a policy to not emerge.
The AG said, “We need to decongest our high courts”. He added that every department must have a resolution wing and every matter need not be a legal dispute matter.
He emphasized that rule of law is a non-violent revolution. “More room for rule of law reduces violence. I look forward to a day when the West comes to learn from us……”, said the AG.
Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh said he feels that the collegium system also needs improvement, though he had always advocated that the Collegium system was the right system provided it functioned properly. He further added that in this functioning seen so far, the basis of envisaging the collegium system was that the judgment of the Supreme Court felt, the judges of the Supreme Court know the lawyers and accordingly they are in the best position to select the best of them.
Singh said it is impossible for any collegium to know the lakhs and lakhs of lawyers practicing in the high courts and there is no method by which the collegium can know where a particular lawyer is or should be elevated — there are lawyers in law firms, there are lawyers in trial courts who deserve to be elevated. “But this system of collegium knowing the person personally to elevate is an extremely faulty system and in the process our judiciary is suffering. The judiciary being the upholder of the Constitution needs to be given top most primacy because even a law passed by unanimity by the entire Parliament can be set at naught by two judges sitting in the court room”, said Singh.
He further added that is” the kind of power that the judges wield in our system and to ensure that this power remains in the right hands, we have to ensure that the system remains relevant”.
The Constitution Day celebrations were attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud, Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice S Abdul Nazeer, Minister of State for Law and Justice S P Baghel, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta along with the judge of the apex court and the members of the Bar.
