Role of judiciary vital for redressal of people's grievances: CJP

KARACHI: Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, has said that role of judiciary is getting vital with every passing day as the citizens are reposing confidence in this institution for redressal of their grievances.

"It is now upto the judges of superior as well as subordinate courts to acquaint themselves with a better knowledge of human society to resolve the contemporary societal problems," he said while delivering a key note address at the 1st Summit of All Pakistan Judicial Academies here Saturday.

The summit was organised by Sindh High Court (SHC) in collaboration with Sindh Judicial Academy.

The summit was well attended by the chief justices and judges of the high courts. Retired judges of Supreme Court and High courts were also present.

"The Constitution protects judicial independence to promote the rule of law and judges are expected to administer the law fairly without fear and favour," he said.

"At the same time, the trichotomy of powers rests upon the recognition of the fact that concentration of absolute power in one individual or institution will result in exploitation and tyranny," he pointed out.

Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said that presently four judicial academies are in operation in the country including that in the Federal capital and three in provinces while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will also soon have its own academy.

These academies are engaged with task of imparting training and orientation in laws, judicial norms and etiquettes to the judges, he added.

He said the Federal Judicial Academy has been striving to impart pre-service as well as in-service judicial training to the judges for improvement of judicial system.

The Chief Justice hoped that the summit will provide an opportunity to critically examine the judicial institutions to make sure that they meet the present needs of the societal problems.

He maintained that the district judiciary is the first forum where litigating public interacts with the judicial system, therefore, these trial court judges are expected to listen patiently and act with full wisdom in their judgments.

About the syllabus of the academies, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said that these should be approved after due deliberation by the Board of Governors of the Federal Judicial Academy to bring uniformity in the system.

He said new trends in jurisprudence, such as cyber crimes, environmental law, alternate dispute resolution, forensic science and criminology, local, national and international law, the judges need to be educated in these fields during pre-service and in-service training from time to time.

Highlighting the importance of information technology, he said the judges should be computer literate and judicial academies must specifically focus on imparting awareness about utilizing information technology tools.

Earlier, he also appreciated the efforts of Chief Justice of SHC, Justice Mushir Alam for providing a platform for exchange of ideas by legal experts to cope with the demands of efficient judicial system.

In his brief remarks, the Director General of Sindh Judicial Academy, Justice (Retd) Saleem Akhtar said that since its establishment in 1993, the Academy has trained out 50 batches of judicial officers.

He said the research oriented studies are lacking in our institutions and proposed that research centres may also be established in the judicial academies.

The Chief Justice, SHC, Justice Mushir Alam highlighted the role, aims and objectives of the summit to further improve the functioning of the judicial academies.

Later, the CJP, Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry launched the website of the Sindh Judicial Academy and the 'Caseflow Management System Kiosks of SHC.

The website has specially be meant for the judicial officers while e-kiosks will made available to the public at various public points specially at the premises of the courts so that they get information about the progress of their cases and other details.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011