The long wait for people seeking justice may end soon as the Jharkhand High Court would function every Saturday to reduce the number of long pending criminal cases.
Acting Chief Justice D N Patel took a decision in this regard on Wednesday, following an instruction from newly appointed Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
Justice Patel said that three to four special benches headed by senior judges would function on September 9 and then on every Saturday to dispose of old criminal cases pending with the high court.
He said that the criminal cases involving persons, who have received free legal aid from the Jharkhand State legal Services Authority (JHAlSA) would be taken up first for disposal. He also suggested the high court lawyers to get old criminal appeal cases listed before these special benches.
The Acting Chief Justice said that the high court has already been running a special drive since July 1 last to offload over five years’ old judicial arrears and also cases registered under Negotiable Instrument Act across the State. “It has been a huge success so far,” he added.
Out of 76,071 cases having age more than five years old pending in district courts across the State, the high court had fixed a target to clear 35,010 till March 31 next year. The district courts have cleared over 6764 cases till date. The district courts in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Deoghar, Palamu and Hazaribagh are the repository of old cases.
Similarly, the High Court has set a target to dispose of 7162 cases out of 19,891 cases pending under the NI Act.