National policy to reduce pendency a priority: CJI

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Saturday declared that a “predictable timeline for deciding cases and a unified national policy for disposing pending matters” will be his first priority, as he laid out an ambitious roadmap for transforming India’s justice-delivery system into one that is swifter, cost-effective, more inclusive and firmly oriented toward the ordinary citizen.

- HT Correspondent

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant at the HT Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Saturday.

(HT PHOTO)

Speaking at the 23rd Hindustan Times Leadership Summit—his first major public interaction after assuming office as the 53rd Chief Justice on November 24—CJI Kant called for urgent judicial reform anchored in accessibility and predictability, coupled with prioritisation of old matters and cases involving the common man.

“My first priority will be a predictable timeline and a unified national judicial policy for early decisions of the pending cases,” he said in a freewheeling conversation with Utkarsh Anand, HT's national legal editor.