President Pranab Mukherjee releases a postal stamp during the centenary celebration of the Patna High Court. (Press Trust of India)
President Pranab Mukherjee, today, said that elected representatives would have strong desire to go for populism which might affect individual rights and the duty of the judiciary is to show red flag to any infringement of fundamental rights of a citizen.
Inaugurating the centenary celebration of the Patna High Court, the President said there would be cases of "stress and strain," but independence of the judiciary should be preserved in any case.
Mr Mukherjee highlighted the pending cases in courts in the country and also shortage of judges, but said that the quality of judgement should not be effected due to this.
He said more than 20 lakh cases were pending in different courts of Bihar, 1.25 lakh of them in the Patna High Court itself.
The President also stressed on greater use of new technology and Information Technology tools for speedy delivery of justice in courts.
He underlined the need for providing more resources to further improve infrastructure of subordinate judiciary.
President Mukherjee pointed to a news report and headline in an English daily which highlighted autonomy of judiciary.
He said the report pointed out how the first Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, Sir Edward Maynard Deschamps Chamier, refused to invite the then Bihar Lieutenant-Governor Sir Edward Gait and other functionaries of the executive to the inauguration of the judicial session on March 1, 1916.
Even the then Viceroy of India Lord Hardinge was kept at bay. The President mentioned the glorious history of the Patna High Court where the country's first President Rajendra Prasad and the first President of the Constituent Assembly of India Sachchidanand Sinha had practised.
He further said that three Judges of the Patna High Court Justice Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha, Justice Lalit Mohan Sharma and Justice RM Lodha were elevated to Chief Justice of India.
Governor of Bihar Keshari Nath Tripathi, Chief Justice of India HL Dattu, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union Law minister D V Sadanand Gowda, his cabinet colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad and Chief Justice of the Patna High Court L Narasimha Reddy were present at the function to start centenary celebrations of the Patna High Court.