Andhra Pradesh High Court Judge and Chairman of the AP High Court Legal Services Committee Justice V. Eswaraiah on Saturday expressed concern over increasing pendency of cases at all levels of judiciary and suggested Lok Adalats as the panacea for early justice delivery to victims.
Addressing participants at a mega Lok Adalat organised by the AP High Court Legal Services Committee at the District Court premises here, he said settlement of pending cases through Lok Adalat appeared to be an effective way to bring down pendency in the courts, particularly at high courts and districts courts in the country. In 1956, a mere 15,300 cases were pending in the High Court, the number rose to 14,000 in 1963, 16,730 in 1975, 1,00,000 cases in 1999 and to 2.74 lakh cases by August 2011.
There are nine lakh cases in all the districts in the State and 43,859 cases unresolved in the district. There are about 42.11 lakh cases pending in all high courts in the country.
There are 20,000 cases relating to Visakhapatnam clients in the AP High Court. The Chairman of State Legal Services Committee said the Article 39 of the Constitution assured justice and fundamental rights to all. If justice cannot be rendered to an aggrieved person in his life time it would tantamount to denying justice to the victim. The exercise involving the litigants, advocates, agencies concerned, and the legal services committee has been very fruitful in settling as many as 78 cases involving motor accidents and insurance claims here.
