Panchkula, March 13
Chief Justice of India (CJI) KG Balakrishnan has called upon Haryana and Punjab to set up family courts in all their districts.

Inaugurating a two-day international conference of jurists here today, the CJI said these courts would require senior judicial officers as the job involved experience, maturity and even innovation.

The conference is being organised by the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana and the International Council of Jurists.

Noting that there were no family courts in Punjab, Justice Balakrishnan said, “There was a need to set up family courts in all districts. Gauging the need of the hour, it is expected that both state governments would establish such courts in the coming six months.”

Emphasising the need to improve infrastructure of courts and welcoming the 13th Finance Commission’s recommendations to invest Rs 5,000 crore to upgrade country’s justice delivery system, he said it would yield good results in near future.

“One good thing is that the commission, in a recent proposal, earmarked a planning outlay of Rs 5,000 crore to improve judicial infrastructure. I am sure that after three-years, we would have good results before us,” he said. He said 4,000 “gram nyayalays” were also proposed to be set up. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal expressed concern over the meagre number of judges saying, “We needed five times more judges as the number of cases were piling up”.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda elaborated on the steps taken by the state government to strengthen the judicial system in the state. The state has already set up 16 fast-track courts and over 28,000 cases have already been disposed of by these courts. In addition to it, family courts were also set up in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Hisar and Bhiwani, he said.

Other dignitaries who spoke on the occasion were SC Judge, Justice RV Raveendran; Judge of Supreme Court (Nepal), Justice Gauri Dhakal; Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Mukul Mudgal; Ambassador of Iceland, Gudmundur Eiriksson; Chief Justice of Maldives, Abdulla Saeed; and Minister of Justice, Punjab, Upinderjit Kaur. Justice Raveendran called upon the members of the Bar to follow the three mantras of speedy, inexpensive and effective justice.