Look Into The Backlog Of Court Cases In All The Districts: Punjab & Haryana High Court Directs Registrar General Of HC

Observing that pendency before an Amritsar Court is phenomenally on the higher side, the Punjab and Haryana High Court last week directed the Registrar General of the High Court to look into the matter as to whether the pendency is only in the Court concerned or is it the case in every District of the state.

The bench of Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill was hearing a plea seeking directions to the court of additional sessions judge in Amritsar district to dispose of the trial in a case registered under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC within a fixed timeframe.

Earlier, the Court had called for a status report from the Court concerned and pursuant to that, a report was filed stating that the courts had been working restrictively for the last one and a half years following the outbreak of the pandemic.

It was also stated in the report that currently, priority was being given to cases where the accused were in custody by fixing short dates. Long dates, on the other hand, were fixed in other cases due to high pendency.

It was also informed to the Court that as many as 3000 cases are pending before the Court concerned, out of which 1000 are Sessions trials (about 400 IPC cases and 650 NDPS Act cases).

Court's observations

At the outset, the Court underscored that that the pendency of Sessions Trials in the Court of the Presiding Officer concerned was phenomenally high. However, the Court did appreciate the decision of the court concerned to give priority to the cases where the accused are in custody.

Regarding the pendency of the case before the Court concerned, the Court further observed thus:

Against this backdrop, regarding fixing a timeline for disposal of the instant trial, the Court noted that the accused are already on bail and that in view of the backlog of cases before the Court concerned, it would not prefer to fix any time-frame for concluding of trial in the instant case.

However, in view of the fact that the application under Section 319 Cr.P.C. in the matter was filed in the year 2018, the trial Court was directed to dispose of the said application at the earliest so that further proceedings on the basis of the said application may be initiated in case any additional accused is required to be summoned as summoning an additional accused normally results in de-novo trial.

Lastly, the Court issued the following direction to the registrar general of the Court:

"...to look into the matter and to see as to whether it is only in the Court of Presiding Officer concerned that the pendency of files is on the higher side or as to whether it is so in every District. In case, it is found that the number of files per Officer is exceptionally higher in District Amritsar, then the feasibility of posting some additional officer be considered during the next general transfer or even before that in case there is any reshuffling/posting of officers, which of course would be considered subject to the approval of Hon'ble the Chief Justice."

Case title - Ram Dev v. State of Punjab and others

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