Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 31: The Action Plan formulated by the Chief Justice of State High Court, Justice M M Kumar has yielded encouraging results with courts across the State disposing of over 13,000 pending cases of different nature within a short span of 90 days. This is for the first time in the history of J&K judiciary that such an exemplary initiative has been taken and given the performance recorded by the courts within three months the pendency of cases is likely to come down significantly during the coming months.
The Action Plan whereby targets were fixed for disposal of cases by different courts across the State was formulated in order to improve justice delivery system by ensuring expeditious disposal of the cases. Ever since issuance of circular to all the Judicial Officers in the State regarding the targets fixed for disposal of cases, the Chief Justice personally monitored the situation vis-à-vis clearance of pending cases after regular intervals.
It is reliably learnt that there were twin purposes behind fixing targets for disposal of the cases. Firstly, the Action Plan led to disposal of large number of cases within short span of time and secondly, it helped the Chief Justice in evaluating the performance of Judicial Officers. Since clear directions were passed through the circular issued in the month of September 2012, the Judicial Officers would have to continue with the disposal of cases in the same spirit during the coming months also.
According to the figures available with EXCELSIOR, 36306 cases (criminal and civil), which were five years old and above, were pending before different courts across the State and after the fixing of targets 13143 such cases were disposed of within a span of 90 days (last quarter of 2012). Now, 23163 such cases are pending before the courts and instructions have been issued to the Judicial Officers to dispose of these cases in the same vigor during the coming months.
In Jammu district 1883 cases were disposed of during the period while as 75 were disposed of in Ramban, 311 in Udhampur, 76 in Kishtwar, 550 in Poonch, 50 in Bhaderwah (Doda), 181 in Samba, 578 in Rajouri, 39 in Reasi and 313 in Kathua.
In Kashmir division, 3784 cases were disposed of in Srinagar, 618 in Baramulla, 123 in Ganderbal, 29 in Leh, 303 in Pulwama, 1016 in Kupwara, 335 in Kulgam, 3 in Kargil, 568 in Bandipora, 694 in Anantnag, 677 in Shopian and 937 in Budgam.
As on December 31, 2012, 5404 cases, which were five year old and above, were pending in Jammu district, 52 in Ramban, 235 in Udhampur, 203 in Kishtwar, 535 in Poonch, 138 in Bhaderwah (Doda), 193 in Samba, 589 in Rajouri, 209 in Reasi and 1073 in Kathua.
Similarly, in Kashmir division, 5504 cases were pending in Srinagar as on December 31, 2012, 2714 in Baramulla, 216 in Ganderbal, 9 in Leh, 659 in Pulwama, 1829 in Kupwara, 456 in Kulgam, 13 in Kargil, 650 in Bandipora, 835 in Anantnag, 1063 in Shopian and 584 in Budgam.
Not only the Action Plan, the Chief Justice’s initiative to designate existing courts as Fast Track Courts for speedy trial of cases of crime against women has also started yielding positive response as one such court in Jammu has disposed of two cases in two days.
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