Evening courts sought to tackle pending cases …….Swati Deshpande I TNN
Mumbai: After its success in Gujarat and its inception recently in Delhi, the law and judiciary department in Maharashtra is seriously considering the establishment of evening courts to help reduce the unending backlog of criminal cases.
Setting up evening courts was a key suggestion at a recent meeting between officers of the law department and the Bombay high court on effective ways to lessen arrears in courts; increasing the number of regular courts was also discussed.
Law department officials noted that evening courts could be set up at the magistrate courts level and would function for two hours after regular working hours. These courts could handle chequebouncing cases, which formed the bulk of pending cases in the lower courts and in Mumbai alone exceeded 2 lakh.
An officer said: The discussions to set up evening courts are on. A concrete decision will be taken later and will require approval from the high court and the cabinet. So, while the process is still at a discussion stage, the mood is that it could work to reduce the backlog and ensure quicker disposal in cases of cheque bouncing and petty offences.
The officials even studied the rules laid down by Delhi high court for the evening courts started there. The magistrate there gets an additional monthly compensation of Rs 10,000 to 12,000 for the twohour court work in the evening from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm. In Gujarat, the magistrate gets 25% more than the monthly salary. In Maharashtra, the idea is to adopt the Gujarat model to some extent. A magistrates basic salary in the state is not more than Rs 10,000.
The evening courts, if and when they do come up, will certainly be set up in Mumbai and some of the other cities that will be identified and approved by the high court. Apart from evening courts, some of the other measures to help reduce backlog will be the promotion of conciliation and arbitration proceedings and the concept and practice of a daily Lok Adalat as its is done in Kerala.
The state will also get 200 new magistrates for which the state has made a handsome allocation of funds and the government has approved setting up of family courts in Nashik, Kolhapur, Akola and Ahmednagar. Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad have 18 family courts.