ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has urged chief justices of high courts to improve monitoring mechanism to eradicate corruption from judiciary.

Presiding over a meeting of the National Judicial (Policymaking) Committee, he said: ‘Since judicial officers and court staff are drawing reasonable salaries, corruption and inefficiency should not be tolerated in any way.’

The two-day meeting, held to ensure effective implementation of the National Judicial Policy 2009, was concluded on Saturday.

The chief justice recalled that the policy had been formulated after exhaustive consultations with all stakeholders and said its objectives could only be achieved through strict monitoring of performance of the district judiciary.

The committee referred to non-production of prisoners before courts and resolved that provincial governments should be asked to construct jails at district level and sub-jails at tehsil level to reduce overcrowding in prisons.

It discussed proposals to ask the government to construct spacious judicial lock-ups with facilities within court premises rather than keeping under-trial prisoners (UTPs) in vans in scorching temperature.

The committee requested the Federal Shariat Court chief justice to convene meetings with the authorities concerned for early construction of prisons in Islamabad.

It held the non-production of UTPs as the main cause of delay in disposal of criminal cases and decided to persuade police authorities to ensure timely production of prisoners before trial courts.

The meeting was of the view that the concept of open court should not be compromised and trial should be held in jail premises only in extraordinary and exceptional cases.

The committee asked the district and sessions judges to visit jails regularly and decide cases involving petty crimes by invoking relevant provisions of law.

FSC Chief Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan, LHC Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, PHC Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, BHC Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and acting Chief Justice of SHC Mushir Alam attended the meeting.