A decrease in number of civil cases being filed in courts was a cause of concern,Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan said on Saturday that wondering whether people preferred "extra-constitutional methods" to seek justice. "We are not worried about the number of cases,but we are worried about the absence of cases. Why has there been a decrease in the number of civil cases as pointed out by (Supreme Court judge) Justice (S B) Sinha," the Chief Justice said after inaugurating the campus of Chandigarh Judicial Academy in Chandigarh. Justice Balakrishnan said that it was not that people don't have problems anymore because of which they are not approaching the courts,"but are they seeking other alternative methods outside the court the extra-constitutional methods,that's what we are worried about. "We want more cases to come. When there is education and people are aware about their rights they will come to courts,that is the best method of resolving disputes in society," the CJI said,adding "it is only through judiciary that we can have peace and harmony in society". The CJI favoured proper training for judges for speedy disposal of the 1.62 crore pending criminal cases and stressed on the need for setting up 10,000 courts. "We have roughly about 15,000 courts in this vast country,which are completely inadequate. We know this is not sufficient at all and we want to have 10,000 courts more. We also know this is not going to be possible immediately," the CJI said. He stressed on the need to impart proper training to judges to cope with the backlog. "We want to inculcate basic values,basic constitutional values in them (judges). We want judges who must know the rights of women,the rights of HIV affected persons,socially deserted ones and how to deal with them and how to be sensitive to them," the CJI said. "We want judges who are committed to social values. with training,we want to make use of judges to their optimal level," Balakrishnan said. In his speech,Supreme Court Judge,Justice S B Sinha had expressed concern over police,bureaucrats and extra-constitutional authorities "playing the role of the judiciary". "This must stop.. We must bring judiciary its old days of glory," he said. Balakrishnan said that people all over the world had "great appreciation" for Indian judiciary as "we are the only country where judges deal with such large number of cases. Justice S B Sinha said that at the current rate,by 2030 the number of pending cases would increase to 24 crore and pointed that CJI had suggested that "we should have a system where no case should be pending beyond five years". With changing times the judges have to be "responsive to the needs of the litigants",he said and stressed on the need for enhancement of "judicial skills" "In today's world,a judge has to deal with international criminals,white collar crimes,intellectual property rights and cases pertaining to cyber crime," he said. Justice Deepak Verma said said that earlier there used to be "compatibility" between the lawyers and the judges,which was not seen now. Justice A K Ganguly said that today's judge has to be "multi-dimensional" and has to "counter balance various conflicting social problems". "Law is oceanic,vast. The structure of training is important for judges to go about discharging their duties," he said,adding "with global economy and global society becoming the day's reality,jurisprudence has to become global too" for which intensive training is a must. Justice Mukundakam Sharma of Supreme Court said there was shortage of infrastructure and even support staff for the judges in many states. Justice D K Jain of the apex court in his speech said that stress has to be given on "personality,character and conduct" of the young judicial officers. Justice Tarun Chatterjee said that a "modern judge must play role of a social reformer. "With judiciary being flooded with volume of cases,we need to train our judicial officers to cope with this," he said.
