Impose costs to reduce frivolous litigation, says CJI-designate U U Lalit

The CJI-designate says that every roadblock in delivering speedy justice should be consciously removed

With the judicial system unable to deliver timely justice because of a huge backlog of cases, Chief Justice-designate Uday Umesh Lalit suggested that a mechanism was required to mandatorily impose costs on litigants bringing frivolous cases to courts and putting additional weight on an already burdened judiciary, according to a TOI report.

Justice Lalit said the "losing side in a frivolous case must be saddled with the cost of using up precious judicial time and resources".

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As per the Constitution, the primary function of the Supreme Court is to lay down laws and decide intricate constitutional issues, said Justice Lalit, who will take oath as the 49th Chief Justice of India on Aug. 27. He said that when the Supreme Court had seven or eight judges, it could spare five to set up a Constitution Court but today, with a strength of 34 judges, a permanent five-judge bench for that purpose could be established. "One Constitution Bench should be in place permanently," he said. "Look at the past judges - Justice V Krishna Iyer during his seven-year tenure had participated in 55 Constitution Bench judgments; Justice PN Bhagwati in 113 such judgments. I think we can set up a bench of five judges permanently."

The CJI-designate said that every roadblock in delivering speedy justice should be consciously removed. "As the Supreme Court, we must develop a healthy practice or system to weed out avoidable litigation,” he said.