'Onus of reducing burden of judiciary on govt officials'

Executive Chairman of Karnataka State Legal Services Authority and High Court Judge N K Patil, on Sunday, sought the cooperation of all government departments in reducing the burden on courts, due to pending cases.

Addressing a gathering of officials from various departments, during the preliminary meeting of the second National Lok Adalat, scheduled for April 12, Patil said, in most of the cases, government departments are the litigants.

A majority of the cases — 95 per cent — are pending before them (government departments) while the remaining five per cent cases are referred to the court.

Patil advised the officials, irrespective of departments like Revenue, Education, etc, and other wings of the government to help addressing the pendency. Also, the members of the bar should show commitment in this regard.

Patil opined that awareness should be brought from gram panchayat, taluk panchayat and other levels to ensure success in the realm.

The sittings of the adalat have commenced from January 1 at taluk-level courts to district and also the High Court in the State-level.

President of Mysore Bar Association C Basavaraj said, Lok Adalat was an extension of village panchayats, held in earlier days. The members of the association have already been apprised of the forthcoming adalat.

Principal District and Sessions Judge K S Mudagal exuded confidence that more number of cases could be disposed in three months time, when compared to the previous and maiden lok adalat held November last year.

Lok Adalat

Buoyed by the success of the maiden Lok Adalat, held in November 2013, when the district finished third after Bangalore and Belgaum division, the district judiciary has a set a target of disposing 44,933 cases in the ongoing Lok Adalat sittings.

Pending cases

In all, 70,953 cases are pending in the district as on December 31, 2013, including city and taluk courts. Among them, 26,536 cases of the total 44,741 are listed in the city-level and 18,397 among the total 26,212 cases in the taluk-level for Lok Adalat.

A highest of 7,055 cases (4,010 in taluk courts) are under Section 138 of Negotiable Instrument (NI) Act (cheque bounce cases) in the city courts, followed by 6,255 (2,504 in taluk) execution cases, 5,695 (5,850) non-compoundable (other than sessions), 3,324 (2,353) partition suits, 1,468 (1,223) money suits to name a few. Other cases are related to petty offences, motor vehicle claims, life insurance and compoundable suits.