Recently, the Attorney General of India has emphasized the establishment of National Courts of Appeal (NCA) to reduce the workload on the Supreme Court.
This idea was presented on the occasion of Constitution Day. The idea was proposed to revive the 11 year old proposal to set up 4 regional NCAs (15 judges each).
This view was also presented by the Supreme Court itself in the year 1986 and by the Law Commission in its 229th report.
About the proposed National Courts of Appeal (NCA):
- The NCAs will act as intermediate appellate courts between the State High Courts and the Supreme Court.
- Each of them will have 15 judges.
- It will act as the final court of justice in dealing with appeals against the decisions of the High Courts and Tribunals of its area in civil, criminal, labor and revenue matters.
- It is to be noted that the decisions of these appellate courts will be final.
- However, a constitutional amendment may be required to establish the NCA.
Importance:
- These will be helpful in reducing the number of pending cases in the judiciary.
- Speedy settlement of matrimonial disputes, rent control matters and other matters which create obstruction before the Supreme Court will be possible.
- This would allow the Supreme Court to concentrate only on the interpretation of constitutional questions of law, context, death penalty etc.
Source – The Hindu
