On the occasion of the Constitution Day, the Attorney-General of India K.K. Venugopal argued for the revival of a 11-year-old proposal to set up national courts of appeal (NCA) in four regions of the country.
What will be the nature of National Courts of Appeal?
- The Attorney General said that the four courts of appeal with 15 judges each could act as intermediate appellate courts between the State High Courts and the Supreme Court.
- Such courts would absorb matrimonial disputes, rent control cases and other such cases that clog the Supreme Court, adding to pendency.
- The judgments of these courts of appeal would be final.
- Shri K.K. Venugopal said that these courts would also mean that we are adding 60 judges who would be taking over these cases. Pendency would be cut down to a very great extent. Cases could be disposed of in three or four years’ time.
What were the earlier attempts?
- The Supreme Court of India, in 1986, had recommended establishment of an NCA with regional Benches at Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata to ease the burden of the Supreme Court and avoid hardship to litigants who have to come all the way to Delhi to fight their cases.
- The Supreme Court in March 2016 decided to form a Constitution Bench to debate the idea of national courts of appeal (NCA).
What is Government’s position?
- A Government of India’s order in 2014 rejected the proposal that such a court of appeal is constitutionally impermissible.
- The Ministry of Law and Justice in 2014 argued that the Supreme Court always sits in Delhi as per the Constitution and the Chief Justices of India in the past have “consistently opposed” the idea of an NCA or regional benches to the Supreme Court.
- The Government holds that the idea is a “fruitless endeavour” and will not lessen the burden of 2 crore cases pending in trial courts.
Benefits of National Courts of Appeal
- The National Courts of Appeal would unburden the Supreme Court, which could focus on interpreting constitutional questions of law, references and death sentence cases.
- Supreme Court judges could hear cases leisurely, read and write better judgments with time on their hands.
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