With a pendency of nearly 8 lakh cases in various city courts, the Delhi Government has in the past few years initiated a number of steps to step up the rate of disposal of cases.
According to Delhi Law Minister Ramakant Goswami, the Delhi Government recently set up six special courts for expeditious disposal of cases relating to crime against women. These courts became functional from the first week of January.
Apart from this, the Minister said, all district courts have been computerised and computers, printers and UPS provided to them to give a further impetus for dispensation of justice.
A lot of emphasis is also being laid on upgrading infrastructure at existing courts and in setting up new courts.
For expeditious disposal of cases of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956, the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate 01 and MM 02 in each police district has been designated as the special court for such cases in the respective districts.
The Minister said that with one more family court, which started functioning at the Patiala House Court Complex, the total number of family courts has gone up to nine.
After the implementation of the Food Safety and Standard Act 2006, a Special Courts and Foods Safety Appellate Tribunal has also been established.
The Saket District Courts had been set up in 2010 to cater to the South District.
In order to deliver justice at people’s doorstep, 11 District and Sessions divisions have been created in place of the earlier singe Sessions division. This has been done on the lines of the revenue districts for the benefit of the public.
For providing better training to judicial officers, a state-of-the-art Delhi Judicial Academy Complex has also been constructed at Dwarka.
Meanwhile, 15 Special CBI Courts have become functional in the last four years for trial of corruption cases investigated by the CBI under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Latest technology like video-conferencing has also been introduced and is being used for granting remand, recording of evidence and holding conferences.
The Delhi Government has also set up a separate court room in the Karkardooma Court Complex to provide a conducive environment to child victims and child witnesses in court.
To provide an alternative forum for resolution of disputes before approaching the court of law, Mr. Goswami said the Delhi Dispute Resolution Society (DDRS) was established in November 2009 and there are eight District Meditation and Conciliation Centres in Delhi presently.
In all, 12,219 disputes have been received at these various mediation centres of DDRS out of which 4,580 disputes had been settled till September 30, 2012.
