Taking suo motu notice of the UT administration's lackluster approach in filling up posts of judges in Chandigarh district courts, the Punjab and Haryana high court has issued notice of motion to the Chandigarh administration.
The division bench, comprising acting chief justice Jasbir Singh and justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, drew attention to cases pending in the district courts. “People are suffering every day. Over 60,000 cases are pending and per officer there is long list of pending cases,” the bench observed.
At present, there are 20 judicial officers in Chandigarh district courts that include a district and sessions judge, five additional district and sessions judges, a chief judicial magistrate, two civil judges (senior division) and 11 civil judges (junior division).
Speaking for the bench, the acting chief justice said that in an all chief-ministers meeting in February, which was also attended by the Prime Minister, chief justice of India and the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court, it was decided to double the strength of judges in the next five years.
But nothing concrete has been done by the UT administration, even after reminders by the high court through the administrative route, forcing the high court to take up the matter judicially.“Judicial posts need to be filled at the earliest to decrease pendency of cases,” said the bench. The court also observed that there was paucity of houses for judicial officers.
{{/usCountry}}But nothing concrete has been done by the UT administration, even after reminders by the high court through the administrative route, forcing the high court to take up the matter judicially.“Judicial posts need to be filled at the earliest to decrease pendency of cases,” said the bench. The court also observed that there was paucity of houses for judicial officers.
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The case will now come up for hearing on May 21.