'Do homework': Acting Chief Justice’s advise to lawyers

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court acting Chief Justice T Raja on Saturday urged the advocates to do homework before appearing for a case so that the valuable time of the court is saved.

After inaugurating five new courts inside the Egmore Metropolitan Magistrate court complex here the acting chief justice said that the digital revolution is there and the those in the law fraternity should explore the online technologies.

"India has exceeded China in population, more population, more education and more awareness of rights leads to more people seeking justice through court, so we have to increase the number of courts, said the ACJ pointing out that more than 4 crore cases are pending in all the courts. Advocates should be crisp and clear and should be able to argue in short span and convey the case details,” Raja added.

Earlier in the day, Justice Raja inaugurated five new courts, including two additional metropolitan magistrate courts for the trial of NI (Negotiable Instruments) Act cases, one additional court for the trial of CCB (Central crime branch) cases, one mobile court (virtual court) and one mobile court for railway act cases.

"In the entire contry, the Madras High Court has set an example by opening more number of courts in the state to benefit public,” Law Minister S Reghupathy said during his address.

"No one should think that the crimes have increased, but the awareness among people had increased. Especially women are now coming forward to fight for their rights,” noted the minister.

"We are achieving high numbers of courts, because we have a Chief Minister giving high priority towards the judiciary. The CM had allotted Rs.1,747 for the law department this year, which is Rs.285 crores higher than the previous year,” he added.

The DMK government headed by Cheif Minister M K Stalin is taking all steps to support the juducial system in the state, the minister added.

"Tamil Nadu is the only state which has more civil cases than criminal cases in the country, in other states they have 30 percent of civil cases and 60 percent of criminal cases, whereas in Tamil Nadu we have only 4 lakhs criminal cases pending comparing to the 6 lakhs civil cases that shows the efficiency of the criminal justice system,” said Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy of Madras high court.

Justice Krishnan Ramasamy of Madras High Court in his speech mentioned that the State as on date has 1246 courts, including 137 functioning in Chennai.

Egmore legislator I Paranthamen, Chennai collector Amirtha Jothi, city police commissioner Shankar Jiwal and Egmore chief metropolitan magistrate N Kothandaraj were among those who attended the event.