Singh urged the judiciary to to become "arrear-free", while addressing a day-long annual conference of the chief justices and the chief ministers of various states. The meet was attended, among others, by Chief Justice of India Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Law Minister Veerappa Moily and several apex court judges.
Pointing out a host of intrinsic merits and the strengths for which the Indian judiciary commands respect world over, Prime Minister Singh said at Vigyan Bhavan here: "Despite its strengths, brilliance and dynamism, India has to suffer the scourge of the world's largest backlog of cases."
"The expeditious elimination of this scourge is the biggest challenge for such conferences and should constitute the highest priority for all of us," Manmohan Singh said.
"Let us take a vow to ensure that the enormous global respect for the Indian judiciary for its pathbreaking doctrines and consistent independence be soon matched by similar accolades for an arrear free judicial institution.
"Like Gandhiji's common man, the focus of the judicial system should be to wipe every tear of every waiting litigant," Singh added.
While speaking of the huge backlog of cases, the prime minister cast the responsibility to eliminate it on the Supreme Court, saying: "Naturally, the apex court has to discharge a vital role. It has to be a catalyst, an organiser, a mentor, an umpire, a participant, and, above all, a role model, all at the same time."
Going by official figures, the subordinate judiciary across the country has a backlog of 26.4 million cases, while the high courts have an arrear of 3.8 million. The Supreme Court had crossed the mark of 50,000 pending cases as of last month.
The prime minister assured the judiciary all help from the government in reducing the arrears.
"I can assure this august gathering with all the emphasis at my command that my government will not be found wanting at any level in this joint effort. We promise to match each step of the judiciary with two of our own. We will not hesitate to walk the extra mile at every opportunity," Manmohan Singh said.
Attributing the backlog of cases partly to existing vacancies of judges in high courts and subordinate courts, Manmohan Singh also exhorted the chief justices of various high courts to take expeditious steps for filling up the vacancies at both levels.
"The existing vacancies in high courts are quite high in number and need to be filled up urgently. I would urge the chief justices of high courts to initiate proposals for quickly filling up these posts," the prime minister said.
He added that "vacancies at the subordinate level roughly comprise 20 to 25 percent of subordinate judicial posts. I am told that almost 3,000 posts of judges in the country are vacant because of delay in recruitment. All these vacant posts at the subordinate levels need to be filled up without any further loss of time."
Taking note of the plight of undertrials, incarcerating in jails for periods exceeding the terms of their possible sentence, Manmohan Singh urged the judiciary and other executive authorities to spare a thought for them as well.
"A matter of concern is the large number of undertrials in our jails. Many such undertrials have been in jail for periods longer than they would have served had they been sentenced. This is indeed very disturbing," said the prime minister.
He said: "There have been pronouncements of the high courts and the Supreme Court on this issue but still the number of undertrials in jails continues to be very large. I sincerely hope this conference will devote some time to this issue," he added.
Singh also disclosed that on a recommendation by Chief Justice Balakrishnan, the union government had taken steps to establish 71 more special courts to adjudicate cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.