NEW DELHI: It just took nine months for a Jharkhand district court to sentence 11 cow vigilantes to life imprisonment for lynching a man in Ramgarh district. Ten people met the same fate in another lynching case.
That trials in both cases were completed in less than a year is no coincidence as they were part of a pilot project to tackle the huge backlog of cases in the eastern state.
Of the total 3.29 lakh pending cases, approximately 2.7 lakh relate to criminal charges, and a little of over 55,000 are civil in nature. Jharkhand is ranked 17th on the national list when it comes to cases pending in district and subordinate courts.
In October last year, the Jharkhand police identified 501 criminal cases, including the above two lynchings, which needed to be disposed on top priority. Trails were fast-tracked in these cases.
Officials associated with the project said the plan was to put in place the initiatives taken by the apex court to reduce the backlog of cases.
The Jharkhand High Court sought periodical report about every case on every second day from judicial officers. All the courts were instructed to adhere to a timeline for clearing the cases. Taking note of the Jharkhand project, the Ministry of Law and Justice has asked officials to study the model so that it could be replicated in other states.