Chief justice M. Karpagavinayagam inaugurates the video conferencing facility. Picture by Shahnawaz Akhtar

Giridih, Aug. 19: The chief justice of Jharkhand high court, M. Karpagavinayagam, considers the large number of pending cases in courts throughout the country a “positive sign”.

“The large number of cases pending in the courts of different parts of country shows how much faith people have on the judiciary and we should take responsibility in disposing cases,” he said, while addressing a large gathering here on Giridih court campus. The occasion was a legal awareness camp organised by the district legal service authorities.

Earlier, the chief justice inaugurated the video conferencing facility between the Giridih court and Giridih jail and session court hazat on court campus.

“The judges’ attention should be on disposing pending cases at the earliest,” he said adding that the cases should be disposed off more on the basis of compromises.

The chief justice also mentioned in his speech that there are 22,000 cases pending in Giridih court. On the responsibility of the lawyers’ community, he said: “The petitioners who come weeping to them should go smiling — that should be their job.

“Both Bar and bench are like rifle and cartridges. Without each other, no result can be produced.”

State high court judge N.N. Tiwari, who was accompanying the chief justice, said: “Now, through internet anybody sitting anywhere in the country can file their petitions at high courts and the apex court without travelling to those places.”

District and session judge Satya Prakash, deputy commissioner Birendra Ram, superintendent of police Arun Kumar Singh, sub-divisional magistrate Iqbal Alam Ansari and several other officers were present here as advocate Prakash Sahay gave the welcome speech.

The Bar council members also handed a memorandum to the chief justice for the transfer of family court which has been shifted few years ago from here to Bokaro.

Last year, after being appointed as the chief justice of the state, justice Karpagavinayagam had laid the foundation stone of the session court hazat in Giridih which he inaugurated today.