E-Paper
Uttar Pradesh government reworks strategy to bring down pendency of cases
Uttar Pradesh government proposes to ensure that the issues once decided are not raised again and again over a period of time
The Uttar Pradesh government has reworked its strategy to ensure effective representation and expeditious disposal of cases pending in the Allahabad high court.
The move comes as various departments continue to raise objections on contentious inter-departmental issues. In this scenario, the state government proposes to ensure that the issues once decided are not raised again and again over a period of time.
“It is generally seen that despite availability of interdepartmental mechanism, various departments raise objections on issues over a period of time even after a consensus is evolved on them at a joint meeting of departments. This makes such a system useless. No objections should therefore be raised once a decision is taken at inter-departmental meeting and all the objectionable issues should be addressed at the joint meeting itself,” said chief secretary Durga Shanka Mishra while issuing a comprehensive government order dated July 8.
The chief secretary has listed 26 points in his fresh government order that replaces all the previous orders issued in this regard.
Listing the salient points of the reworked strategy, Mishra said all administrative departments should consolidate the cases of a similar nature for hearing and not seek adjournments unnecessarily except in unavoidable circumstances. He said a portal was being developed to ensure effective representation and follow-up of cases in a time bound manner. He said all the departments should mandatorily appoint nodal officers not below the rank of special secretary for effective representation and expeditious disposal of cases. The nodal officers should not be changed frequently and additional chief secretaries/principal secretaries and secretaries have been asked to provide telephone numbers/email ids on the department’s website, he said.
The chief secretary said if the high court orders were in accordance with the government’s policies their compliance should be ensured in 10 days.
If there was any issue in following the orders, a revision petition should be filed in 10 days to ensure there was no contempt.
Mishra noted, “The state government has implemented a state cases policy for expeditious disposal of cases pending in the hon’ble high court and various government orders have been issued from time to time for effective monitoring/representation. Despite this, a large number of cases are however pending in the hon’ble high court due to lack of effective representation. The pendency of cases is going up and the prevailing situation is not right.”
He quoted the Allahabad high court’s orders given on May 18, 2022 in contempt case number 300/2022 Rakesh Devi alias Rakesh Kumari versus Satish Kumar, district basic education officer, expressing displeasure over the prevailing situation and asking state government to formulate a comprehensive plan for government related cases.
It also asked for developing a mechanism for taking a decision at a high level about filing or not filing counter-affidavit.
Within 24 hours of the high court directives, An email should be exchanged between the office of legal remembrancer and state law officers deputed in the high court.
