Dealing with pendency of cases, promoting mediation will be my priorities as CJI: Justice Surya Kant
New Delhi (PTI): CJI-designate Justice Surya Kant on Saturday said dealing with a huge backlog of over 5 crore cases across courts in the country and promoting "game changer" mediation as an alternative mode of dispute resolution will be his two top priorities as head of the judiciary.
On online trolling of judges and judgements, he said these things never perturbed him. Fair criticism is always acceptable, he said.
Justice Kant, who was appointed as the 53rd Chief Justice of India (CJI) on October 30 by President Droupadi Murmu, will take the oath of office on November 24 to succeed Justice B R Gavai.
In an informal chat with mediapersons at his official residence here, Justice Kant said, "My first and foremost challenge is arrears of cases. Today's scoreboard shows that the Supreme Court arrears crossed 90,000. I am not going into how it happened, who is responsible... maybe listing (of cases) has gone up."
He said he will also seek reports from high courts about the pendency of cases there and in trial courts across the country.
According to reports, more than 4.6 crore cases are pending across India's courts.
The CJI-designate underlined the importance of mediation as an effective alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
"Now the second issue is mediation. This is one of the easiest ways of dispute (re)solution and it can really be the game changer," he said.
Referring to a recent speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an apex court function in which he stressed the need for mediation, Justice Kant said now the entire country is talking about it.
Recently Indian private MNCs, banks and insurance companies officially approached the top court seeking mediation training for their employees. They wanted to have their own in-house mediators because they did not want to go for long litigation, he added.
On ways of reducing pendency of cases, Justice Kant gave an example of batch matters of Delhi related to land acquisition and said by one judgement of his, around 1,200 cases were disposed of.
He further said that the high courts will be asked about the pending cases to be adjudicated upon by larger constitution benches of the top court.
There are many cases stuck in high courts as judgements are awaited in other related matters of larger legal and constitutional issues in the top court and larger benches have to be set up for that, he added.
On online trolling of judges and court judgements, Justice Kant said that once one reaches the office of an SC judge or becomes the CJI, then these comments on social media should not bother them.
"Frankly speaking, I call social media 'unsocial media' and I do not feel pressured by online comments...," he said, adding that during his tenure as a high court and Supreme Court judge, he was never perturbed by these.
Fair criticism of judges and judgements is always acceptable, he said.
Asked about the rising pollution in Delhi-NCR, Justice Kant said he still goes for a morning walk for around 50 minutes every day.
"Despite any weather conditions or anything, I normally go for my walk and average 50 minutes to one hour I walk...," he said.
Talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and its ill effects, the CJI-designate said a holistic view of technology is needed.
"AI can really provide a great solution to the institution, but we will have to find a solution (to its malady)," he said.
Justice Kant will have a tenure of 15 months before he demits office on February 9, 2027, on attaining the age of 65.
Born on February 10, 1962, in Hisar district of Haryana in a middle-class family, Justice Kant went from being a small-town lawyer to the country's highest judicial office, where he has been part of several verdicts and orders of national importance and constitutional matters. He also holds the distinction of standing 'first class first' in his master's degree in law in 2011 from Kurukshetra University.
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Australia retains the Ashes with 2 tests to spare after a tense victory over England in Adelaide
Adelaide (AP): Australia retained the Ashes with two matches to spare after paceman Mitchell Starc took three of the last four wickets to blunt England's defiant comeback Sunday in a tense fifth-day finish to the third cricket test.
Australia started Day 5 needing four wickets to retain the Ashes, with England resuming at 6-207 and still 228 runs away from the victory target of 435 that would have required a world record to achieve.
“Feels pretty awesome,” Australia captain Pat Cummins said of the 82-run win at the Adelaide Oval. “We got it done.”
Cummins missed the first two tests while recovering from a back problem, with Steve Smith leading the team to two eight-wicket wins. Smith was ruled out of the third test about a half-hour before the toss because of vertigo.
“You can't really rush things here in Australia, it doesn't work that way,” Cummins said of the test going the distance. “It's a good old fashioned grind a lot of the time and, yeah, I love the toil from all the guys today.
“It got a little bit closer than I would have liked, but pretty happy.”
Tense Day 5
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Starc took the only wicket in the morning session — Jamie Smith running out of patience and caught by Cummins for 60 — as England piled on 102 runs.
England's rally had narrowed the Ashes equation at lunch on the last day: Australia needed three wickets to clinch the old urn in Adelaide and England needed 126 runs to keep the five-match series alive.
No team had scored more than West Indies' 418 (in a three-wicket win over Australia in 2003) in the fourth innings to win a test.
But England skipper Ben Stokes later said he felt like his team were “on for another heist” in the morning session and was confident of achieving a record total.
With England's lower-order doggedly mounting pressure and Australia's attack missing veteran spinner Nathan Lyon, who limped off the field with an injured hamstring, the leading bowler in the series delivered for the hosts.
Starc, who was voted player of the match in Australia's eight-wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane, took the wickets of Will Jacks (47) — spectacularly caught by Marnus Labuschagne, who dived from slip in front of the wicketkeeper — and Jofra Archer (3).
That left Scott Boland to finish it off. He dismissed Josh Tongue (1) and left Brydon Carse stranded on 39 as England was all out for 352.
Player of the match
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Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey was voted player of the match after posting a home ground hundred in the first innings, a half-century in the second innings in a 162-run stand with Travis Head, who top-scored with 170, and completing seven dismissals for the test.
England's out of contention
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England captain Ben Stokes said he was happier with the resilience shown by his team this week, despite ultimately surrendering the series in 11 days.
“This is going to hurt quite a bit,” Stokes said. “Obviously that dream that we came here with is now over, which is obviously incredibly disappointing.
“But look, we've got two more (tests) to go on and that's where the focus needs to switch to now.”
Injured Lyon
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A day after swinging the momentum back in Australia's favor with a three-wicket burst, veteran spinner Lyon hurt his right hamstring diving to cut off a boundary in the outfield and was ruled out of the remainder of the match. He got up and clutched the back of his right leg before walking off with a trainer when England was 249-6.
Long, long drought
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Domestic media noted Sunday that it had been 5,462 days since England last won a test match in Australia — dating back to January 2011.
Since then, the Australians have won the series Down Under 5-0, 4-0, 4-0 and are now 3-0.
Melbourne will host the Boxing Day test starting Dec. 26 and Sydney will host the fifth test in the New Year.
