Times of India: New Delhi:
Monday, January 27, 2014.
After two
years of following Five Plus Free plan aiming to dispose of all cases which
have been pending for more than five years, just how much time does it take for
a person to get justice in the trial courts? The answer is it can take over 30
years.
Criminal
cases instituted as early as 1982 are still lying pending in the trial courts,
an RTI reply has revealed. This is despite Supreme Court judgements and
circulars issued by Delhi high court asking subordinate courts to conduct
day-to-day trials.
RTI replies
from the Patiala house, Karkardooma and Saket district court complex, accessed
by TOI, revealed criminal courts are still hearing 20/30-year-old cases. Even
cases of serious offences like domestic violence and attempt to murder, which
involve a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, are pending for two decades.
The judiciary
has time and again launched drives to reduce pendency, with a focus on old
cases. In 2012, higher judiciary had asked lower court judges to
"identify" cases pending for over five years. The courts were asked
to dispose of such cases within six months. Despite the Five Plus Free drive
being in operation for two years, RTI replies show that decade-old cases are
yet to see light of day.
In one of the
magisterial courts, the 10 oldest cases were all filed in the 1990s and deal
with Section 498A (cruelty against woman by husband and relatives of husband).
In another court, customs cases dating back to 1980s are pending. Charges have
not been framed in one of the cases.
The state of
affairs in trial courts remains abysmal even after Delhi high court's direction
that district courts are to comply with Section 309 of Criminal Procedure Code
in "letter and spirit". Section 309 of CrPC makes it mandatory for a
court to conduct "day-to-day hearing until all the witnesses in attendance
have been examined, unless the court finds the adjournment of the same beyond
the following day to be necessary for reasons to be recorded". The HC had
also said that violation of the circular would entail "administrative
action against the delinquent judge".
Following the
RTI replies, a letter has been written to the high court by lawyer Manish Khanna
to treat the issue as a PIL as "not all courts are giving day-to-day
trial".
The letter
said there was no access to justice for ordinary people if "trial is to
take 10-30 years and the appeal procedure in the HC can take another 10-40
years".
While data of
Tis Hazari court was not made available, the letter said that if similar data
was provided from other courts like Tis Hazari court complex "the result
of delay would be even worse".
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