Hyderabad: Maintaining that the existing judicial system of the country had become the face of the rich and the resourceful, Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday said that the judiciary in India failed to serve the common man.

Justice Sengupta was inaugurating the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Dr Ambedkar, organised jointly by the Bar Council of AP and High Court Advocates’ Association, in the court premises. Addressing the legal fraternity, the Chief Justice said, “If we can make the judicial system a face of the common man, that will be a fitting tribute to Dr B.R. Ambedkar.”

He stressed that the need of the legal fraternity was to follow the ideas of Ambedkar and the rule of law to ensure fair play in all spheres.

Justice Sengupta later attended a programme at the International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR) at Gagan Vihar.

Addressing the gathering there, he said Parliament had amended the Criminal Procedure Code and Civil Procedure Codes by fixing the time frame for concluding trials in a speedy and effective manner.

He added that according to amendments, judgement in a civil dispute should be delivered in three months and for criminal cases, it should be in six months, but judges and lawyers were not ready to implement them.

Justice Sengupta felt that “filling vacancies and increasing judges’ strength by 10 per cent would solve the problem of pendency in courts.”