Himachal CJ calls for speeding up corruption trials

The direction especially relates to cases registered before 2008. In his letter,Justice Joseph set a deadline of June 30,2011,for judges to take up all cases.

“No case under the Prevention of Corruption Act should be pending for more than one year,” the CJ wrote .

To monitor the progress,Justice Joseph asked sessions judges and additional sessions judges to submit a monthly report on disposal of such cases.

As per official figures,279 corruption cases are pending in the session courts of Himachal Pradesh. Of this,the highest number of cases — 53 — are pending in the court of the sessions judge (forest),Shimla.

This is closely followed by the court of additional sessions judge (1) Kangra in Dharamshala with 52 cases.

The oldest corruption case pending in Himachal goes back to the year 1997,also at the court of additional sessions judge (1) Kangra .

The Chief Justice has already designated Justice Surjit Singh to hear cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a daily basis.

There are 120 such pending cases in the high court and the oldest ones are from the year 2000.

The CJ hopes to clear the backlog within six months after the high court reopens post winter vacation.

The high court is already hearing a corruption case involving former Drug Controller Sher Singh Thakur. He was arrested by the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau in 2008.

The court has asked Director General of Police DS Manhas and Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu to file a list of the tainted officers,including those who were caught red-handed but later reinstated and given plum posts despite the pending cases.