|
|
|
| May 14, 2005 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1426 |
Mounting backlog delaying justice: LHC annual report
LAHORE, May 13: A backlog of decades is making a clear impact on the adjudication of criminal, civil and commercial disputes by superior and sub-ordinate courts. The high court’s annual report for the year 2004, released to the press on Friday, says the number of cases pending at its principal seat at Lahore and benches at Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur on Dec 31, 2004, is nearly 66,000. But if seen in the backdrop of the preceding year, the number of cases still under various stages of disposal is only 4,637. The report says that the LHC received 83,351 fresh cases during 2004 and disposed of 78,714. But the huge backlog has resulted in a big pile which will make its impact on many yearly reports to come.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry presented the annual report with the observation that the mounting backlog is delaying justice which amounts to denial of justice. But, he vows to overcome the situation by improving working conditions of the judiciary at all tiers by a variety of methods, including maximum benefits from the Asian Development Bank-funded Access to Justice Programme.
“A lot was done and much more is still required to be done. Every effort is being made and every step taken to provide to the litigant public easy and inexpensive justice,” the chief justice said in the foreword.
As for the sessions courts in the Punjab, the backlog is 77,817 cases. As many as 345,640 cases were instituted and 342, 911 were disposed of during 2004. Cases pending in the preceding year were 2,729 only.
According to the report, 922,622 cases were instituted during the year and 927,889 were disposed of by all the civil and criminal courts across the Punjab. This means that the subordinate courts have decided more cases than instituted during the year. But due to the backlog, the number of pending cases is as high as 900,384.
The report says that 852 cases were instituted in anti-terrorism courts which decided 714, leaving a balance of 545, including the backlog. Similarly, the banking courts received 5,425 fresh cases and disposed 4,943. The balance, including the backlog, is 2,724. Same is the case with the labour courts which decided 5,085 disputes out of 5,425 but still the balance is 2,724. In drug courts, 2,060 cases were filed afresh and 2,126 were decided. The number of outstanding cases is 2,934.
The LHC principal seat received as many as 36,490 writ petitions and 2,915 criminal original applications. The number of criminal original petitions is alarming because this shows that police and other government departments defied the high court orders with impunity and a good number of people approached the court in contempt pleas.
A similar picture has been portrayed with regard to habeas corpus, harassment and non-registration of FIRs by police in the annual report which says that such complaints on the part of police have risen to as high as 25,360. According to the breakup, police harassed law-abiding citizens on 13,443 occasions, in 45,943 cases they failed to register FIRs and kept 5,974 people in unlawful confinement during 2004.
The report says that 1,030 cases in harassment, 3,207 in non-registration of FIRs and 261 habeas petitions are still pending although the law provides for immediate redressal of such complaints which are listed as ‘urgent’.
The chief justice said in the annual report that the preceding year witnessed a ‘major development’ in the construction of judicial complexes, providing facilities to judicial officers, lawyers and litigants and the launching of 208 schemes in the ADB-sponsored programme.
Steps taken in automation and computerization of the LHC and its benches, receiving petitions through e-mail and availability of important judgments on the court website has improved efficiency and quality of work during the year. Besides, the establishment of the Punjab Judicial Training Institute was approved during the year. A monthly judicial allowance of Rs5,000 to district and sessions judges and additional sessions judges and Rs4,000 to civil judges was sanctioned for the purpose of improving judicial efficiency.
SMALL: The annual report also mentions that the LHC placed a demand for creating 135 posts of civil judges-cum-judicial magistrates with the Punjab government for the purpose of launching the small claims and minor offences claims’ courts at eight major cities of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan.
It may be mentioned here that the federal government had promulgated an ordinance to create small cause courts two years ago. The Lahore High Court, in consultation with district and sessions judges, decided to adopt the scheme and asked the Punjab government to create 135 posts. But the provincial government is yet to respond.
|
|
|
|
