PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Courton Monday launched a five-year policy for the speedy disposal of cases to clear backlog.

According to high court registrar Khawaja Wajihuddin, around 230,880 cases are pending with district courts across the province.

He told reporters here that the District Judiciary Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Policy, 2020-25, was formulated for the reduction of the backlog of cases every year and its elimination by the end of fifth year.

“One of this policy’s objectives is 100 per cent disposal against the fresh institution of cases,” he said.

Registrar asks govt to address issue of judges’ shortage

The registrar cited shortage of judges and Covid-19 pandemic as major reasons for an increase in the number of pending cases and requested the provincial government to resolve the issue of the judges’ shortage.

The registrar said currently, the district judiciary faced shortage of posts of 83 civil judges- cum-judicial magistrates and 24 additional district and sessions judges.

He said under the policy, the districts were divided into three zones in accordance with the number of cases pending with the district and additional district and sessions judges.

Mr Wajihuddin said Zone A had seven ‘high workload’ districts with more than 3,000 pending cases each and they included Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Charssada, Dera Ismail Khan, Swabi and Abbottabad.

He said under the policy, 20 per cent of the pending cases would be disposed of annually besides 100 per cent disposal of cases against fresh institutions.

The registrar said Zone B included the ‘moderate pendency’ districts with more than 1,000 pending cases each, while Zone C had ‘low pendency’ districts having less than 1,000 pending cases each.

Zone B has Swat, Haripur, Kohat, Mansehra, Bannu, Karak, Lakki Marwat, and Upper and Lower Dir districts and Zone C Buner, Lower and Upper Chitral, Malakand, Tank, Khyber, Hangu, Shangla, Kurram, Battagram, Bajaur, Mohmand, North and South Waziristran, Upper and Lower Kohistan, Orakzai, Kolai-Pallas and Torghar.

Mr Wajihuddin said the province had been divided into three zones for the courts of senior civil judges and those of civil judges.

He said the police had several key performance indicators and that keeping in view the institutional trends, the disposal of cases in every court should be 100 per cent in addition to the gradual reduction of the backlog of cases.

The registrar said under the policy, the disposal of cases had to be within the stipulated statutory timeframe and if the timeframe for a particular category of case was not provided, then it had to be issued from time to time in accordance with the directions of the competent authority.

“In order to achieve the constitutional objective of the provision of inexpensive justice delivery to the people, all efforts shall be made to decrease the cost of litigation by avoiding unnecessary adjournments, streamlining processes, curbing frivolous litigation, eliminating corrupt practices and awarding costs of litigation and compensations,” he said.

The registrar said public confidence in the system of the administration of justice would be enhanced through the removal of delay in case disposals and corrupt practices, prompt grievance redressal at district and high court levels, simplification of processes, and swift services delivery.

He said based on workload and attending circumstances, the district and sessions judges should fix daily case disposal target for every judicial officer in light of the prescribed standard and examining the monthly institution trends and requisite annual backlog reduction.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2021