Shivani Gadhavi –
Published On: November 30, 2021 at 19:00 IST
On 26th November 2021 the Attorney General of India K.K. Venugopal suggested that there is need for creation of Regional Courts as Courts of Appeal, which would help to ease the burden on the Supreme Court. This statement was made while taking note of the issue of huge pendency of cases before the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General stated, “I would envisage at least four regions — north, south, west and east — each having a Court of Appeal. We’re adding 60 judges who would be taking over the cases so that the pendency would be cut down to a very great extent. It would be reduced so that… Supreme Court would not require the 34 judges which it has now.”
Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana responded to Venugopal’s suggestion and noted, “ the reconstructing of the judicial system and altering the hierarchy of the courts…is something that merits consideration by the government.”
In Report No. 229 of the Law Commission of India questioned about the presence of courts of appeal in four regions of India and stated, “whether the Supreme Court should be split into constitutional division and legal division for appeals… is a subject of fundamental importance for the judicial system of the country.”
In the 2009 report, the Law Commission of India also mentioned the 11th Law Commission report from the year 1988 which stated, “reiterated the above recommendation for splitting the Supreme Court into two adding that it provided an additional reason for the same, which is the disadvantage in which the location of the top court in Delhi places appellants coming from far corners of the country.”