The Karnataka High Court Chief Justice D.H. Waghela said that the main objective of establishing permanent Benches of the High Court outside the principal court was to achieve the objective of speedy delivery of justice and bring down the pendency of cases.
The Chief Justice was speaking at the inauguration of the permanent Bench of the Karnataka High Court in Gulbarga on Saturday. The Circuit Bench in Gulbarga has now been upgraded as a permanent Bench.
Now that the Circuit Benches of the Karnataka High Court in Dharwad and Gulbarga have been upgraded and made permanent Benches, efforts should be made to put the new facilities to the best use to reduce the pendency of cases.
According to Mr. Waghela, there were over 800 cases pending in the Gulbarga Circuit Bench for more than five years, and the rest are pending for less than five years. Now that it has become a permanent Bench, cases pending for over five years would be cleared within a few months, and the rest would also cleared over a period of time.
‘Adopt to change’
He said judicial officers and advocates should adopt to the changing times, and avoid wasting time in disposing of pending cases. “If a case is filed in the court, it should be disposed of within two years and there should not be any further delay,” he added.
Union Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge said that though the jurisdiction of the Gulbarga Bench is limited to five districts there are 15,000 cases pending and that is a huge number. He stressed on early disposal of cases and speedy delivery of justice to litigants. He suggested that the Karnataka High Court should review the pendency position every month and take steps to ensure that they are disposed of at the earliest.
Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra said that 15,755 cases were pending in the Gulbarga Bench of the Karnataka High Court. Expressing concern over the increasing incidence of atrocities against women, and sex-related crime against women, Mr. Jayachandra said that the State government will establish 10 special fast track courts to deal with such cases. The government would also go all out against projection of women in an indecent manner in advertisements in the electronic media, and action would be taken against advertisers doing so. The Family Courts would be strengthened in the State, the Minister added.
High Court judge K. Bhaktavatsala said that the Centre should sanction an IIT to Hyderabad Karnataka region. With the establishment of the permanent Bench of the High Court in Gulbarga, the cost of fighting a case for litigants would come down by 50 per cent. Registrar General of the Karnataka High Court R.B. Budhial and High Court judge N.K. Patil were present.
