Special steps taken for quick disposal of old cases

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has taken a special measure for quick disposal of the old cases at the High Court in order to reduce the sufferings of litigants.

He recently instructed the officials concerned of the Supreme Court to select the old cases, which were filed till 2010 and before that year, and to send to different High Court benches and to include them in the hearing lists of the benches for early hearing.

Sabbir Fiaz, additional registrar of the High Court Division of the SC, told The Daily Star that the chief justice has taken the initiative to get the old cases disposed of by the High Court speedily and to reduce the sufferings of the litigants.

Usually the new cases are heard and settled at the High Court on priority basis, he said.

Faiz also said the SC officials are now selecting the old cases and have already sent around 500 old cases to 15 HC benches for their early hearing and disposals.        

He, however, could not specifically how many old cases are now pending with the HC at present.

Meanwhile, an SC study report, prepared recently, has showed that total 4, 14,035 cases were pending with the HC till September 30.

Total 31, 39,275 cases were pending with all the courts across the country including the Appellate Division and High Court Division of the Supreme Court.

The number of pending cases of the Appellate Division was 13,119 and the number of pending cases with the lower courts was 27, 12,121 till September 30, according to the study report.