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UP plans 9,149 new courts to tackle case backlog
The proposal is under active consideration by the UP government and the Allahabad HC as part of recommendations made by the Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri Committee for strengthening judicial infrastructure across states.
Uttar Pradesh is considering setting up 9,149 additional courts to address the heavy pendency of cases in subordinate courts and meet requirements arising from new laws, principal secretary (Law) and legal remembrancer Uday Pratap Singh told the HT.
The proposal is under active consideration by the UP government and the Allahabad HC as part of recommendations made by the Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri Committee for strengthening judicial infrastructure across states.
“Based on the modalities communicated to all high courts across the country, the Allahabad high court has assessed the requirement of 9,149 additional courts in UP,” Singh said.
He said the creation of such a large number of courts would be undertaken in phases and would require time. In the interim, the state government has decided to establish 14 additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunals (MACTs) and four more special POCSO courts.
Singh claimed that UP ranked first in the country in the disposal of POCSO cases. Despite this, around 90,000 cases remain pending before POCSO courts across the state.
Pointing to challenges in judicial recruitment, he said repeated court orders modifying service rules following writ petitions have affected the process of advertising and filling vacancies in the lower judiciary.
He added that, with the approval of the high court, the state government had notified 368 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Division). The recruitment advertisement is expected to be issued soon by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC).
Singh said the preliminary examination process for PCS (J) has already been announced and subsequent stages will be completed to select suitable candidates for the judicial service.
