Did the Chief Justice Break Down?

By Vijay Kumar

Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.NEWSPAPERS reported today that while speaking emotionally at the conference of Chief Justices and Chief Ministers of States, the Chief Justice of India, Justice TS Thakur broke down and was seen wiping his tears. But did the CJI really cry?

He was actually crying for more judges, more funds, more support from the Government. The CJI said,

Nothing moves…

And therefore, it is not only in the name of a litigant or people languishing in jails but also in the name of development of the country, its progress, that I beseech you to rise to the occasion and realise that it is not enough to criticise. You cannot shift the entire burden on the judiciary.

When the apex court came into being in 1950, it had a strength of 8 judges, including the CJI with 1,215 cases pending. Then the pendency was 100 cases per judge.In 1960, the strength of the Supreme Court rose to 14 judges and the cases also increased to 3,247. In 1977, the strength was 18 and the cases were 14,501. By 2009, as is the case today, the strength of SC judges rose to 31 and the pending cases spiralled by 77,181.In 2014, the cases were 81,582 which were reduced to 60,260…

I feel that if nothing else has helped justice, an emotional appeal might….