Evening courts or not? HC seeks list of pending cases

The court has asked the district courts of UT,Punjab and Haryana to furnish information pertaining to cases pending till date in four categories — motor accident claims,wherein victims who suffer injuries seek compensation,cheque bounce cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act,traffic challans and revision petitions of maintenance cases.

“The endeavour is to lessen pendency and provide speedy justice to litigants. These categories contain cases which are supposed to be decided expeditiously,without any delay. Unfortunately,it has been witnessed that cheque bounce cases and motor accident claim cases keep hanging for years for no reason. We are trying to bifurcate these cases and establish an evening court,” said a senior HC official. According to sources,the list of cases in these categories — pending as of now — has been prepared and dispatched to the high court.

Similar information has been sought from the lower courts of Punjab and Haryana as well. “After gathering the information,we will see as to which district court in Punjab and Haryana is suffering from pendency of such cases. Accordingly,we will set up an evening court in the district concerned,” said the official.

Welcoming the move,Advocate Rishabh Kapoor said: “This will not only reduce the burden from the shoulders of judges but also bring a sigh of reprieve for litigants,who unnecessarily have to pay fruitless visits to the court for such petty cases.” Two weeks ago,the high court had issued a directive to the Chandigarh district courts to decide old cases,which are still pending,by the year-end.

Earlier,the high court had asked the UT district court to prepare a list of 50 old cases pending in every category of criminal and civil cases. It had ordered that the said cases will be decided by December.

The directive was issued under the “Samadhan-2011” — an endeavour to clear backlog of ailing cases. Last week,the HC had relieved the list.