Lahoti at the conference on Saturday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Sept.18: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked judges to introspect and the chief justice of the country?s highest court vowed to cleanse the system as corruption took centrestage at the conference of chief justices and chief ministers today.

Singh kicked off the debate with his inaugural address. He voiced concern over ?growing incidents of corruption in judiciary? and ended his speech with an appeal to judges to do some ?soul searching? to bring in accountability and transparency.

?A mechanism of accountability, conceived and implemented by the judiciary itself, is the surest way to ensure judicial independence,? he said.

As if in response, Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti said: ?At times, question marks have been placed on the credibility of the judiciary on account of some aberrations which are not products of the system but are individual in nature and are isolated cases. These factors have tendency for bringing bad name to the entire system.?

The Supreme Court chief justice declared 2005 as the ?year of excellence in judiciary? and said the process of ?cracking? the whip ?on those, who by their conduct or behaviour do not deserve to be members of an ideal judiciary, has already commenced?.

?I am confident of developing a system in which the best of talent and men of character and integrity shall alone have a place,? he asserted. In the year of ?excellence in judiciary?, there will be no place for any corruption or indolence in the system. ?I mean business,? he added.

Another concern of the Prime Minister was delays in the judicial process. He said the government was committed to ?provide whatever support necessary to cut delays in high courts and lower levels of judiciary?. Stressing on the right of the people to speedy justice, he added: The ?agony of delay in judicial process is multiplied when long pendency of cases adds up to the litigation cost?.

The Prime Minister suggested strengthening the alternative dispute resolution mechanism to reduce the burden of arrears. The ?government itself is making efforts to reduce litigation by filing lesser number of appeals in the courts?, he said.

Lahoti touched on this point, too, saying ?utmost efforts? would be made to reduce arrears without sacrificing quality.

The conference at Vigyan Bhavan ? titled ?Envisioning Justice in the 21st century? ? was being held after a gap of 11 years, law minister H.R. Bharadwaj said in his welcome address.

The Prime Minister said the government has ?decided to establish national tax tribunals which will reduce tax-related litigation?. The government, he added, would also implement a 1994 resolution barring resort to litigation between the government and public sector undertakings.

Singh suggested reducing the number of holidays for courts so that pending cases could be cleared fast. About 20 million cases are pending in lower courts alone as on date. The Prime Minister said cutting down long vacations and reducing the number of holidays are equivalent to increasing the number of judges by 25 per cent.

Lahoti lamented the ?meagre? amount given to the judiciary by the government in the planned expenditures. He said the ?financial crunch becomes acute as the central grant is being made conditional to the effect that it would only match the money given by the state governments?.

He said there was no money to appoint more judges and provide them with modern infrastructure and added that because of vacancies, trial courts were functioning like ?lame ducks?. ?We have diagnosed the ailment. The medicine is known, but we have yet to make provision for purchasing the medicine and administering it. We cannot leave the patient alone to cure his illness all by himself,? he said.