Letters: The apex court

M J Antony's column "Putting first things last" (Out of Court, November 20) highlights the limitations of the Supreme Court in handling cases that need proper interpretation of the Constitution. The current chaos in society, rampant corruption and disenchantment of citizens have added tremendously to the workload of the judiciary. Today public interest litigations are filed even for small incidents to delay genuine action from the executive. The release of films that have been cleared by the Censor Board are delayed on flimsy grounds. The lawyer fraternity in India is raking in the moolah in the process. The Supreme Court can give strong judgments in some general matters to drastically reduce the number of cases in other courts. The apex court has to find ways to tackle such alarming situations so that it gets more time to consider other pending cases that need hearing from constitutional benches. The court may fix one week every month for such important cases, so that its timely relevance is maintained. Also, the number of judges needs to be increased and the process of selecting judges should be speeded up. The Supreme Court should start refusing routine cases and impose a heavy penalty on applicants that waste the court's time or file false cases. This will give the court more time to hear cases of national importance.

K K Mishra, Surat

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