Chief Justice of India TS Thakur breaks down in front of Narendra Modi, calls for 'more' judges

New Delhi: A visibly emotional Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur made a poignant appeal to increase the number of judges in order to handle the "avalanche" of litigations, to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present at the event, assured him of the government's intervention. "It is not enough to criticise, you cannot shift the entire burden to the judiciary. If you compare performances of our judges to the other countries, we are head and shoulder above them. Speeches have been made in past, people have spoken in conference, there's been debate in Parliament. But I think nothing really appears to be moving," Thakur addressed the Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices here today. Asserting that while the tug of war between the state and the central government for funds continued, Thakur added that the judiciary was stuck as 38 lakh cases remain where they are. "In 1987, the requirement was 40,000 judges. From 1987 till now, we have added 25 crore in terms of population. We have grown into one of the fastest growing economies of the world, we are inviting foreign direct investment into the country, we want people to come and make in India, we want people to come and invest in India," the CJI said. In response, Prime Minister Modi said that he understood the Chief Justice's concern and added that that going forward, he hoped that the Government and the Judiciary could work together to find solutions to these issues.