Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid has informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that proposals for changing the names of Bombay High Court to Mumbai High Court, Calcutta High Court to Kolkata High Court, Madras High Court to Chennai High Court and Gauhati High Court to Guwahati High Court are under the UPA Government’s consideration.
On whether the Lok Adalats have substantially reduced the number of pending cases, especially in subordinate courts, the Law Minister replied in the affirmative.
“In the last three years, about 2.91 lakh Lok Adalats have been organised and 94.40 lakh cases settled,” he detailed.
To another query, Khurshid said the Chief Justice of India had written in December 2010 to the Chief Justices of high courts to fast-track corruption cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, so that they could be taken up on a priority basis both in the high courts and subordinate ones.
The Chief Justice again conveyed on November 8, 2011, that as many as 46,120 cases were pending disposal in the first two tiers of the judiciary as on June 30 last year and impressed upon them for expeditious disposal of corruption cases.
The CJI had, inter alia, suggested formation of Special Benches in high courts for effective and efficient disposal of these cases, Khurshid stated.
Answering a question put forth by BJP leader Gopinath Munde, the Law Minister said there were nearly 15,000 district and subordinate courts in the country.
As many as 2,69,86,307 cases were pending in the subordinate courts as on December 31, 2011.
On fast-track courts, the minister said the scheme has not been extended beyond March 31 last year.
The Centre had provided financial assistance to the state governments for setting up fast-track courts from 2000-01 to 2010-11 fiscal, Khurshid said.