Judges to have more power
The Supreme Court (SC) is set to make chief judges of appellate courts more powerful to make administration of justice more effective in appeal courts and the district courts under their respective jurisdiction.
SC Registrar Dr Ram Krishna Timalsena said the amendments are being introduced in the existing Supreme Court and Appellate Court Regulations to incorporate the provisions giving more power to the chief judges.
"We have proposed in the draft regulations that the chief judges can regularly monitor, inspect and instruct the courts under their respective jurisdiction, Dr Timalsena said. "The proposed provisions aim at making the appellate court chief judges active and dynamic in their respective region."
The move has been taken upon the realization that the chief judges have not been as active and dynamic as they should have been. Besides, they have been more dependent on the Supreme Court for any decision to give direction, and for monitoring and inspecting performance of the lower courts under their jurisdiction.
Each appellate court has certain number of district courts under its jurisdiction. There are 16 appellate courts across the country, and the number of district courts under the jurisdiction of a particular appellate court varies. There are 75 district courts.
The regulations will be effective after an endorsement by the Full Court, the apex policy-making body of the judiciary, which is headed by Chief Justice.
In the meantime, efforts are underway to set up an IT section in each appellate court and district court in order to expedite the judiciary's bid to inter-connect all the courts across the country, according to Dr Timalsena.
The judiciary has planned to computerize all the courts across the country within next three years, according to Deepak Timalsena, IT chief of the Supreme Court.