Former MP and founder-president of the Puducherry State People’s Development Party (PSPDP) M. Ramadass has urged the government to constitute a high level committee to suggest measures to strengthen the judicial system in Karaikal.
In a statement, Mr. Ramadass said the working condition of the courts in Karaikal district was grossly inadequate and impaired the delivery of justice to the people of the region.
The integrated Court of Karaikal comprises the District Court, Family Court, Sub Court, Principal District Munsif, Additional District Munsif, Judicial Magistrate I, Judicial Magistrate II and a part- time Labour Court.
While seven Judges should be in place to effectively perform the functions of the judiciary, only three judges were available to manage the entire show. Even the position of District Judge is lying vacant for many years. Some of the posts of judges have not been filled up for more than three years, he said.
In such a situation, hundreds of cases are not even heard and the judge meets every day to complete formalities of adjournment and fixing another date. In this process of adjournment hundreds of cases are pending trial. According to the statistics provided by the office of the Chief Judge, Puducherry, Karaikal had 6506 pending cases in its various courts for the month of February, 2023.The estimated number of pending cases per lakh population in Karaikal in this month was 3,253. Besides, hundreds of cases to be pronounced judgement are also pending, Mr. Ramadass said.
While the appointment of Judges is a collaborative and integrated process involving the executive and judiciary, it remained the bounden duty of the Government to initiate the process with the judiciary, he said.
Mr. Ramadass urged the Government to fill up of vacancies expeditiously in a time bound manner. According to Government rules 18 % of the total posts of the Government of Puducherry should be earmarked to Karaikal region. However, this rule seems to have been observed more in the breach, he noted.
