Over 1.3 lakh cases disposed of in 10 days

B.S. Ramesh

BANGALORE: History has been made in Karnataka in the last few days when the judiciary in the State successfully disposed of more than 1.3 lakh cases in just 10 days.

In what could be described as a first in the country, the judiciary in Karnataka joined hands with the State Government and the Police Department in launching a unique programme to clear the huge backlog of cases, many of them pending in different subordinate courts for years.

A brainchild of Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court P.D. Dinakaran, the programme named “Pilot project programme to provide easy access to justice, inexpensive justice, speedy justice and timely justice”, was launched by the Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan recently.

Suffering litigants

The Chief Justice had decided to launch a programme aimed to alleviate the suffering of the litigant who came from an economically poor background. Realising that a majority of people facing trial in petty cases and compoundable cases belonged to the poor strata of society, he proposed a special drive in solving these cases.

The programme was launched on November 24 and it has met with resounding success.

In five days beginning December 1, 1.33 lakh of the 1.59 lakh petty cases in Bangalore alone have been solved.

The figures from other parts of the State are equally encouraging. Of the 2.14 lakh petty cases pending in the State, 63,047 have been disposed of.

This is the first time in the country that the judiciary in any State has disposed of record number of cases.

Bangalore tops

High Court Registrar-General Budhihal and Registrar (Judicial) Murari said the programme to dispose of cases at the subordinate courts would continue.

They said 13,13,195 cases were pending trial in the State as on November 1, 2008. Of them, the pendency of petty cases in all the 29 districts is 5.68 lakhs. Bangalore city alone accounts for 97,360 of such cases and Bangalore Rural district 38,753. Similarly there are 63,047 compoundable cases and the High Court has decided to tackle these two categories.

The Registrars said the High Court had sent commendation certificates to all the judges of the subordinate courts, district bar associations and Superintendents of Police, who had participated in the programme and made it a success.

Director-General and Inspector-General of Police R. Srikumar said more than 1.33 lakhs persons had become “free men” and could walk away without being unduly worried about the case. Additional Director-General of Police S.T. Ramesh said the credit for the success of the unique endeavour was because of the wholehearted cooperation of the judiciary, State and police.

http://blogs.thehindu.com/delhi/?p=8160