The Delhi Government is in the process of creating a central database for effective monitoring of all the important court cases pending against it all across the city. There is a strong view in the Government that cases pending against its various departments were not being handled professionally and there was an urgent need to address the issue on a priority.
Details submitted by various departments showed about 3,070 cases being pending against the Delhi Transport Corporation, 846 against the Delhi Jal Board, 724 against the Health and Family Welfare Department, 550 against Trade and Taxes wing, 512 against Delhi Subordinate Services Selection, 485 against Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, 191 against Delhi Cooperative Housing Finance Corporation and 115 against Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
Among the departments who have court cases pending against them in single digits are Directorate of Information and Publicity, Planning, Administrative Reforms Department, Directorate of Gurudwara Elections, Directorate of AYUSH and Homeopathy Wing, Finance, Directorate of Vigilance, General Administration, Employment, Directorate of National Cadet Corps, Forensic Science laboratory, MGICC, DEDA, Delhi Archives, Archaeology Department, Tourism, Information and Technology wing and Power department.
Source said that on the directions of Kejriwal, a high-level meeting of all departments was recently convened where officers were directed to present details of all the important cases pending against their respective wings all across the city courts. Except for the land and Building Department and the Chief Election Office, the source said all other departments submitted the details of their pending court cases. Though the officers of all the departments were present, there was reportedly no representative from the land and Building Department.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is said to have observed that the details provided by Education, Revenue, Excise, labour and Food & Supplies Departments showed less number of court cases pending against them. He reportedly directed all the HODs to submit at the earliest not only the list of the court cases of their respective departments but also of other officers who were also under their administrative control.
Sisodia also directed the HODs to personally monitor all the important court cases by holding regular consultations with their respective Ministers. The law Department also brought to the notice of the Deputy Chief Minister that only 12 departments had submitted details about their nodal officers.
The source said that Sisodia directed his officers to immediately submit the list of their nodal officers, along with their mobile numbers.
A senior officer said that once details related to all the court cases are put together, an effective mechanism would be developed to track their day-to-day developments. “This would help the administration to take quick decisions in speeding up the process in all the important court matters,” said official.