Bihar Chief Minister, Sri Nitish Kumar has expressed that the speedy justice delivery system is quite essential for the state. He said that the state government is committed to provide a speedy a judicial system to the people of the state. According to him operationalization of Gram Nyayalaya, constitution of fast track courts, establishment of shift courts in the form of evening and morning courts, training of judicial officers, infrastructure of civil courts, steps for disposal of pending cases, filling up of vacancies in High Courts and Civil Courts, strengthening of legal aid, mediation and conciliation; and constitution of committee for permanent monitoring of judicial works are some of the areas in the state, which requires some immediate attention.
The aforesaid views of the Bihar Chief Minister were presented today by the Bihar Law Minister, Sri Ram Nath Thakur at a “Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts” held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Sri Thakur read out and enumerated the difficulties faced by state judicial system.
With regards to operationalization of Gram Nyayalayas in Bihar, Sri Thakur explained that under section 106, 107, 108, 109 and 110 of Bihar Panchyat Raj act, 2006, a Sarpanch of gram panchayat has the jurisdiction for trial for the offences of section 140, 142, 143, 145, 147, 151, 153, 160, 172, 174, 178, 179, 269, 277, 283, 285, 286, 289, 290, 294, 294, 323, 334, 336, 341, 352, 356, 357, 358, 374, 403, 426, 428, 430, 447, 448, 502, 504, 506, 510 of I.P.C. Sri Thakur informed the gatherings that a bench of Gram Kachahari may punish any offender to be convicted imposing a fine which should not exceed Rs. 1000/- in the Criminal cases. It also has jurisdiction to dispose of suits whose valuation does not exceed Rs. 10,000/-. In order to assist the Sarpanch, “Nyay Mitra” with a law degree is also provided to each Gram Kachahari.
Bihar law minister enumerated that so far 183 Fast Track Courts have been established in Bihar, whose, terms have been extended till March 2010. This is a purely centrally sponsored scheme. Buildings for these courts in almost all districts have been completed. Sri Thakur informed that altogether 24,975 cases have been disposed of by the Fast Track Courts in 2008.
However, according to Sri Thakur, the Fast Track Courts at Magistrate level has not yet been established so far. He said that the constitution of Vigilance Courts at Divisional level is still under consideration in the Union Govt. For the disposal of corruption cases, three courts at Patna and one at Muzaffarpur are functioning. One out of three vigilance courts at Panta, is functioning for the trial of “trap cases”. During the period of 2006 to 2009, 352 Govt. servants were arrested in trapping. 16 cases are disposed of by that courts and accused in 14 cases are convicted and 2 of them acquitted.
He further informed that in the year 2004 a total of 337 cases, in 2005 377, in 2006 a total 441, in 2007 688, in 2008 773 and in 2009 so far 82 cases were registered in the vigilance courts. Thus so far altogether 847 cases were registered. Out of those pending cases only 4 cases has been disposed off and rest of 843 cases are still pending. For the speedy disposal of these cases, Vigilance Investigation Bureau, Bihar has requested Central Vigilance Commission, to establish “Trap cases courts”. They have requested to establish 7 such courts in the 7 commissionary of the state, otherwise, according to the Chief Minister, it will take 30 years to dispose off all cases.
Chief Minister, Sri Kumar in his speech has mentioned that in Patna High Court, only 24 out of 43 Judges including Chief Justice are discharging judicial function. However, the appointments for 12 posts of Addl. District & Session Judge and 217 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Division) are under process to fill the vacant posts in civil courts.
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To provide legal aid in Bihar, a committee has been constituted at High Court and districts level by State Level Services Authority. To provide the full time secretary in Districts Legal Services Authority, the creation of 37 posts of Addl. District & Session Judge is in process.
The Lok Adalats, according to the Chief Minister are in function and special Lok Adalats are being organized in the direction of State Legal Services Authority. The mobile Lok Adalat is also in function. Through the Lok Adalat and special. Lok Adalat 14489 cases have been disposed of in the month of April and May, 2009. Through the mobile Lok Adalat a total of 19817 cases have been disposed of April to June 2009.
The conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Union Law & Justice Minister Sri Veerapa Moily, Chief Justice of India, Sri K.G. Balakrishnan along with many Chief Ministers and Chief Justice’s of many states including Bihar Chief Justice, Sri P.K. Mishra and as the representative of Bihar CM, Bihar Law Minister, Sri R. N. Thakur also participated in the conference.