Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU. Apr 8: In order to reduce the arrears of pending cases in the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh has issued slew of directions.
As per the circular issued in this regard, all final hearing matters above 10 years will be listed on Tuesday and Thursday, and these days will be kept exclusive as final hearing days on which days no other non-hearing matter will be taken unless permitted by the Chief Justice.
Such matters shall be reflected in the cause list as “Target Cases” and the cases which are more than 20 years old will remain on board of the roster bench till final disposal. Moreover, on the final hearing days—-Tuesday and Thursday, the urgent matters will be listed before the roster benches, subject to mentioning.
Mention for listing of urgent matters in the two wings of the High Court shall be made before the Chief Justice or a Senior Judge assigned by the Chief Justice. For the time being, admission and order matters, which are listed on final hearing days because of earlier judicial orders will be taken up only after the final hearing matters are concluded.
A fast track Single Bench will be constituted from time to time in both wings of the High Court to hear the “Target Cases” irrespective of roster. The Bench Secretaries/Readers of the respective courts shall ensure that in future, only final hearing matters are fixed on Tuesday and Thursday. They will also ensure that CIS calendar is strictly followed and the number of cases listed before the bench shall not ordinarily exceed 70.
These directives will go a long way in reducing arrears of pending cases. Moreover, number of initiatives already taken by the High Court has helped in disposal of pending cases.
As reported exclusively by EXCELSIOR remarkable achievement has already been made in the disposal of pending cases by the High Court of J&K and this can be gauged from the figures of National Judicial Data Grid.
As on December 31, 2018, a total of 64042 cases were pending in the High Court of J&K and this number increased to 71693 as on December 31, 2019. However, during the past three years the figures have declined considerably. The pendency as on December 31, 2020 was 63468 cases and this number reduced to 47761 cases as on December 31, 2021 and further to 44526 as on December 31, 2022.
As far as sub-ordinate judiciary is concerned, much attention is being paid towards holding of e-Lok Adalats and hearing of cases through virtual mode. As per the official data, a total of 716240 hearings were conducted by J&K and Ladakh High Court as well as District Courts as on January 31, 2023. Of these, 257708 hearings were conducted by the High Court and 458532 by the District Courts in these Union Territories.
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