NEW DELHI: Come December 2018, Indian judiciary marred with pendency of over 3.2 crore cases will see a significant change in its justice delivery system. The ray of hope has come from the Ministry of Law and Justice, which has directed the trial courts in the country to give dates of final judgement in every case they are hearing. Especially, cases pending for five to 10 years have been given dates of December 2018 for final order.
As many as 2.54 crore cases are pending in trial courts across the country. The ministry is also working on a mechanism under which an automatic judgement date would be handed as soon as a case is filed. This will instantly help parties know when the first round of litigation will get over. In a meeting held last week between the law ministry and Niti Aayog, stress has been laid on fixing the time limit of cases, especially criminal and civil ones.
“One round of litigation in the trial courts would be two-three years while in civil cases it would be seven-eight years,” a senior law ministry official told The Sunday Standard. The ministry is also studying reasons for delay in cases—ranging from number of adjournments, stay taken from High Court on a trial court order, number of appeals filed, average time spent on disposal of cases to classification of cases.
“These reasons weigh a lot of importance as trial court proceedings depend largely on various other factors. If an order is passed from a trial court and a stay from High Court is taken, then the trial court process will come to a halt. So, we are figuring out the ways to overcome these problems,” the official added.
Order, order…
Delhi’s six trial courts have acted swiftly on the directions and have started giving final date of judgement in cases which are 5 to 10 years old. “All concerned parties involved in the case have been informed already about the final dates in the matters and priority is to wind up the cases by December 2018,” said an official in-charge of Delhi trial courts’ case management system.
With the new system in place, it would be difficult for parties to get unnecessary adjournments in the case. Moreover, there would be more responsibility on prosecuting agencies to produce evidences and witnesses on time so that proceedings do not get hampered and stick to its respective deadlines.
National Investigation Agency, operating from Delhi’s Patiala House Court, has also been asked to dispose of pending cases before it. Cases, which were pending since 2011, have been given the final judgement date of December 2018.