Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Gulbarga circuit Bench turns one

GULBARGA: The circuit Bench of the Karnataka High Court in Gulbarga, which celebrates its first anniversary on Sunday, has silenced its critics and proved to be a boon to litigants.

The volume of cases filed before the circuit Bench in the past year and the number of cases disposed of speak of the effective manner in which the Bench has been functioning.

When the circuit Bench was inaugurated by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan on July 5 last year, cases pertaining to Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur and Raichur districts, which were transferred to the Bench, numbered 9,810. The number of cases filed in the past year is 10,365.

The court has a jurisdiction over cases from 74 subordinate courts from 27 taluks in the four districts.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Saturday that on an average 35 cases were disposed of in a day in the past year, taking the total number of cases disposed of till date to 7,426. The number of pending cases is 13,019.

The circuit Bench, which is housed in an imposing new structure with 10 court halls and a Chief Justice Court Hall, started functioning officially from July 7 last year with five high court judges: Justice V. Gopalagowda, Justice N.K. Patil, Justice N. Anand, Justice B.S. Patil and Justice Arali Nagaraj.

Supreme Court Judge Deepak Verma, who was the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court for some time, held a two-day sitting in the circuit Bench on July 21 and 22. Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court P.D. Dinakaran also heard cases in the circuit Bench on September 22, 23 and 30.

Initially, the High Court had posted five judges to hear cases in the Gulbarga circuit Bench, but due to low pendency of cases there and the high pendency of cases in the principal seat in Bangalore, the number of judges in the circuit Bench here was reduced to four.

However, the delay in completing the construction work on the 61-acre complex has created some problems for the State Government in extending all the facilities to the circuit Bench. The complex consists of six judges’ quarters, three registrars’ bungalows, 182 staff quarters, a guesthouse, a clubhouse, a hospital and other facilities. The officials in charge of the construction said that the majority of the work had been completed and only finishing touches had to be given.

The cost of construction, including the court building in the circuit Bench complex, went up from the initial estimate of Rs. 65.45 crore to Rs. 101 crore. Till now Rs. 79.69 crore has been spent.

Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, Union Labour Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, Mr. Dinakaran and other senior judges of the high court and Ministers will participate in the function on Sunday.

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