Forget appeal courts, focus on pendency: Govt to Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: Days after an emotional CJI T S Thakur sought PM Narendra Modi's help to increase judges' strength to relieve the judiciary of monstrous pendency, the Centre on Tuesday belligerently told the Supreme Court that the idea of setting up of National Courts of Appeal (NCA) in metros was unconstitutional.
Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who had earlier termed NCAs as neither "desirable nor feasible", questioned the SC's jurisdiction to entertain such an idea, which was neither sanctioned by the Constitution or the law.

When a surprised court asked why the government was not even ready for a debate on the desirability of NCAs, the AG said the Constitution did not provide for setting up of NCAs and even if it had to be, it fell squarely within the policy domain of the government and working of legislature.
"The court's dockets are full and there is a lot of pendency. The Supreme Court should not take up such issues as its dockets are full. Setting up of NCA would only mean creating another forum for lawyers. The Supreme Court should concentrate on speeding up justice delivery at the lowest level where more than two crore cases are pending. That requires attention. We don't' require NCAs. Can it do anything to lessen the pendency burden?" the AG asked.

A bench of Justices Thakur, R Bhanumathi and U U Lalit clarified that it would not give any direction to the government to set up NCAs but only debate the issue for issuing recommendations. But the AG was in no mood to tone down the government's opposition to the concept, saying it militated against the constitutional mandate.
"We want to refer the issue to a Constitution bench after chalking out the parameters within which the debate can take place. We are neither issuing a direction nor asking the government to amend the Constitution. Do not stand against it making it a prestige issue," the CJI said. "We, like you (the government), are also for reforms. The debate started by you got shelved because of other reasons," he said, po- ssibly referring to the government's effort to bring in the National Judicial Appointments Commission for selection of judges.