Rules of the Law-III

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: The problem of case pendency is as old as the hills. Exodus, 18.13 states, “And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.” As a single judge, Moses simply could not handle the problem. Jethro’s solution was more judges and more courts. We, of course, focus on some recent and major attempts to reduce pendency.

Lok Adalats

Lok Adalats originated because the established legal and juridical system failed to provide effective, fast and inexpensive justice. In 1980, a Committee known as CILAS (Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Schemes) was set up to monitor legal aid activities. This gave birth to Lok Adalat. The first Lok Adalat was held in 1982 in Junagadh, Gujarat. Lok Adalats are supplementary forums to provide quick, easy, accessible, non-technical and sympathetic dispute resolution mechanisms and should also address pendency problems.

The Lok Adalat system should have exploded. But this hasn’t quite happened. The number of Lok Adalats organised increased from 33,810 in 2001-02 to 35,167 in 2002-03 and 43,493 in 2003-04. However, this apparent success has not been matched by the number of cases that Lok Adalats have disposed of. That figure was 14,48,472 in 2001-02, but dipped to 12,52,021 in 2002-03 and to 11,80,371 in 2003-04. The problem does not seem to be paucity of financial resources. What is also noticeable is the great inter-state variation in performance of Lok Adalats. For instance, if cases disposed of divided by number of Lok Adalats organised is an acceptable indicator of Lok Adalat productivity, among major states, the performances of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have been outstanding.

Fast Track Courts

The Eleventh Finance Commission recommended and sanctioned the setting up of 1,734 Fast Track Courts (FTCs), with a special focus on cases involving under-trials, who had remained in jails for a period of more than two years. The original note prepared for the Eleventh Finance Commission is symptomatic.