People get so fed with judicial process that they just want settlement: CJI
New Delhi (PTI): People get "so fed up" with the matters of courts that they just want a settlement, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said on Saturday while highlighting the role of Lok Adalats as alternative dispute redressal mechanisms.
Lok Adalats are forums where disputes and cases pending in courts or at pre-litigation stage are settled or compromised amicably. No appeal against the mutually accepted settlement can be filed.
"Log itna trast ho jate hain court ke mamlon se wo koi bhi settlement chahte hain...Bas court se dur kara dijiye (People are so fed up with the matters of the court that they just want a settlement). This process is the punishment and that is a cause of concern for all of us as judges," Chandrachud said at the commemoration of the special Lok Adalat week at the Supreme Court.
The CJI said he got tremendous support and cooperation from everyone including the Bar and the Bench in setting up of Lok Adalat at every stage.
Chandrachud said when the panels for the Lok Adalat were constituted, it was ensured that every panel would consist of two judges and two members of the Bar.
"The purpose behind doing this was to give ownership to the advocates over the institution because this is not an institution which is only run by the judges, and this is not the institution of the judges, for the judges, by the judges," he said.
"There is so much that we learn from each other. We learnt from the advocates about how much command they have over little procedural issues," the CJI said.
Chandrachud said he genuinely felt that the Supreme Court may be located in Delhi but it is not the Supreme Court of Delhi. It is the Supreme Court of India, he said.
"Since I took over as the CJI, we have made efforts to bring officers from all over the country in the Registry. They bring great amount of inclusion and diversity," he said.
The CJI said the special Lok Adalat began with seven benches initially as "we were sceptical if we would be successful". "By Thursday we had 13 benches and there was so much work," he said.
"Purpose of Lok Adalat has been to take justice to the homes of people and ensure people that we are constant presence in their lives," Chandrachud said.
The week-long special Lok Adalat, celebrating 75 years of the Supreme Court, began with the aim to "facilitate amicable settlements of suitable pending cases", in matters that have "elements of settlement".
The top court held the special Lok Adalat till August 3 in an effort to reduce the pendency of cases.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
