Indian P.M.'s plea on justice backlog

(Aug.18,2009): Indian Prime Minister Man Manmohan Singh has urged the country's judiciary to address the massive backlog of pending cases, which he says is the biggest in the world. Official figures show that more than 30 million cases are pending in Indian courts - some since 1950.
Mr Singh said clearing the cases was the biggest challenge facing the country's judiciary. The backlog has been blamed on the number of vacancies for judges and on archaic laws. Earlier this year, the chief justice of the Indian capital's High Court created a stir when he said it could take up to 466 years to clear the backlog in his court alone. "The focus of the judicial system should be to wipe every tear of every waiting litigant," Mr Singh told a meeting of chief ministers and judges. He called for the modernisation of courts and for linking them through a computerised grid. The P.M. said that the government was planning to set up more than 5,000 village courts.