LAHORE, Jan 28: The Lahore High Court and its subordinate courts in Punjab disposed of 953,670 cases during the past two years leaving a backlog of 1,067,526.
The LHC principal seat and the benches disposed of 112,485 cases during the past two years. Of them, 3,930 old cases pertaining to pre-1991 period were disposed of by December 31, 2000, under a project for disposal of old cases launched on September 25 of that year. Another 5,249 old cases were disposed of during 2001.
The LHC categorized 11,481 cases referred to it before 1996 as old cases on January 1, 2001, for expediting their disposal. Of them, 3,730 cases were disposed of during 2001 leaving behind 7,511 cases which were being actively pursued.
The LHC received 88,247 fresh cases during 2001 and disposed of 99,576 cases. They included 51,967 writ petitions, 574 murder references, including 21 sectarian murder and 230 murder cases registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 4,048 criminal appeals, 1,688 criminal revisions, 2,784 civil appeals, 8,159 civil revisions, 742 tax matters, 750 cooperatives petitions and 357 banking matters besides other categories excluding miscellaneous petitions which are not categorized.
On January 1, 2001, the LHC had 75,756 cases pending before it to which 88,247 cases were added. Of them, 99,576 cases were disposed of by December 31, 2001, leaving behind 64,427 cases.
The number of pending cases before the sessions courts in all the 34 districts of the Punjab, including the capital territory of Islamabad, was 99,067 on January 1, 2001. As many as 272,401 fresh cases were filed during 2001. Of them, 256,615 were disposed of leaving a balance of 114,853 cases on December 31, 2001.
As many as 887,351 cases of all categories were pending before civil courts and courts of judicial magistrates on January 1, 2001. The number of fresh cases during 2001 was 585,404. Of them 584,510 cases were disposed of leaving behind 888,245 cases on December 31, 2001.
All sessions cases filed before 1997 were disposed of by the end of 2001 except 273. Likewise, all cases instituted in civil courts prior to 1994 were disposed of except 2,604.
As many as 12,409 accused involved in petty crimes were released on their personal bonds by the sessions judges during their visits to jails last year in exercise of the suo motu powers.
Chief Justice Falak Sher of the Lahore High Court has lauded the efforts of the judicial officers in disposal of old cases and has expressed the hope that the subordinate judiciary would keep up the pace of work in future as well.