The Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Wednesday said that the Justice Delivery System could bear fruit for litigants only if modern techniques of case management and court automation would be put in practice. He was addressing a round-table meeting of all the District and Sessions Judges (DSJs) in Punjab. Justice Syed Muhammad Kazim Raza Shamsi and Justice Mehmood Maqbool Bajwa of the Lahore High Court also attended the meeting.
The Chief Justice said that Case Management System and Case Auditing Project was been initiated in the District Judiciary. The Chief Justice said that this Case Auditing Project would help devise district wise strategic policy interventions to eliminate the menace of high pendency of cases. The Chief Justice emphasised that the District Courts being the front line courts had a unique place in the judicial system of Punjab Province. He said the confidence of litigants could only be restored in the judicial system by bringing in policies based on the notions of transparency, openness, merit and accountability in the District Judiciary.
The Chief Justice also said that the DSJs were the agents of change and they could revolutionise the judicial system by working hard with positive attitudes. The Chief Justice further urged the DSJs to improve working relationships with the judges of the District Judiciary for understanding and resolving the problems of District Judiciary. The Chief Justice also said that no judge with a questionable reputation, low performance and below par behaviour could stay in field and it was the responsibility of the DSJs to monitor and evaluate the performance and integrity of the judicial officers.
The Chief Justice also briefed the DSJs about the establishment of Service Centres in each district enabling litigant public to know about the status of their cases and to register their grievances with ease. The Chief Justice vowed that the infrastructural development of the district judiciary was his top most priority. He also highlighted the problems being faced by the female judicial officers.
In the earlier segment of the meeting a delegation of European Union's Punjab Access to Justice Project led by John Lipton also participated wherein Osama Siddique of the Lahore University of Management Sciences explained the major features of the proposed Case Management System for the District Judiciary.