The Jharkhand High Court’s initiatives to reduce pendency in the trial courts came for applaud from the judges of the Supreme Court at a national-level conclave held in New Delhi a couple of days back.

The conference on “National Initiative to reduce pendency and delay in judicial system” was organised by the Supreme Court in collaboration with Indian law Institute.

According to sources, Justice A K Sikri, during a technical session, specially invited Acting Chief Justice D N Patel to share his initiatives for reducing pendency in the trial courts during his tenure.

Earlier, President Ram Nath Kovind had also lauded the Jharkhand High Court for taking various steps to cut down judicial arrears and ensure justice to one and all.

Sharing his initiatives during the conclave attended by Chief Justices and judges of other high courts as well as Jurists, Justice Patel narrated how the fusion of court management as well as the case management did wonders in cutting down the pendency during last one year.

Elaborating the Jharkhand model, he pointed out that the three ingredients, including proper utilisation of human resources, encouragement to judges and compulsory retirement for the corrupt and non-performers enthused the judges to perform. “Our sole message to the judges is to perform or perish,” he maintained.

Noted jurist Madhav Menon is also said to have appreciated the model, penned by Justice Patel for expediting the justice system.

In fact, the trial courts in 24 districts were given the target in July last year of clearing 35,000 five years plus old cases till May 31 this year, and they locked 37,520.

They have been given the target of 45,000 for this fiscal. They have unburdened lower judiciary of 8569 cases filed under Negotiable Instrument Act against the target of 7000, and 1000 cases of Juvenile Justice Act.

Moreover, the special project, introduced by the Acting Chief Justice in December last year, to put 500 criminal cases on speedy trial resulted into conviction rate of 63 per cent, the highest in the country.

Emboldened, he has handed over another 1000 cases for speedy trial, vowing to take the conviction rate to at least 80 per cent.

“It could not have been possible without close coordination among all the stakeholders,” Justice Patel pointed out.

“And, the subordinate court judges have achieved the target putting in additional hours, apart from their routine work,” he pointed out. In all, the lower courts had cleared 1,34,138 criminal cases in 2017.

A long tenure of one year as ACJ has given Justice Patel an opportunity to draft the policy and implement it passionately both in the court as well as in the field of legal services through Jharkhand State legal Services Authority (JHAlSA).

Significantly, this point of consistency was also stressed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi when, during the concluding session of the two-day conference on July 28, he pointed out that Judiciary must have a consistent policy to tackle case pendency.

Justice Patel, known for his missionary zeal in taking free legal services at the door step to the people on the margin, particularly Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Jharkhand, had also received accolades at the national level for effectively implementing ADR mechanism of Mediation, Victim Compensation Scheme and legal empowerment schemes.