There will be 'flood' of pending cases post-Covid, mediation needs to be emphasised: CJI Bobde

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India S A Bobde on Saturday said that the COVID-19 pandemic would present a huge pendency of cases in courts and a lot of emphasis has to be placed on utilising mediation for resolving many of these matters.

The CJI also stressed on the need to focus on mental health and referred to the uncomfortable prediction that there might be a suicide pandemic following the COVID crisis.

This COVID pandemic is going to present us with huge pendency of cases. I do not see any way out of it. We have to decide cases, the CJI said during a virtual event where he launched the book - Judiciary, Judges and the Administration of Justice' - authored by former top court judge Justice R Banumathi.

The CJI said he believes that this is the time when a lot of emphasis has to be placed on utilising mediation, pre-litigation and post-litigation mediation to resolve many matters.

I am not suggesting every matter can be, but when the pandemic goes away and the lockdowns are all lifted, we are going to face a flood of cases which I do not know how we are going to decide if we go in the usual way of following the detailed procedure and this is something which we all have to put in our minds together to deal with, he said.

Addressing the gathering, Justice N V Ramana said judges are now being construed as soft targets for criticism and are becoming "victims of juicy gossip and slanderous social media posting .

Justice Ramana, the senior-most judge of the apex court after the CJI, said that judges have to balance their social life in order to be independent.

It is completely upon the judge to maintain a distance. Judges themselves restrain from speaking in their own defence and they are now being construed as soft targets for criticism. This issue is further complicated by the proliferation of social media and technology. Judges are becoming victims of juicy gossip and slanderous social media posting, he said.