Mumbai Sessions Court needs two years to clear cases

A study has revealed the extent to which Sessions courts are burdened with cases, saying that on an average, it takes 25 months for a case to travel from the FIR (First Information Report) stage to the final verdict in a sessions court in the state.

For the report, Praja Foundation studied 1326 cases comprising kidnapping, rape, murder, grievous hurt, attempt to murder and dacoity.

The report also found that filing of charge sheet, after lodging of FIR, takes 11 months on an average. From there, it takes two months for the accused to enter the process of attending trial and have the first hearing in court. The data also indicates that it takes 12 months from the first hearing in court till the verdict.

Legal experts say the government's lackadaisical approach to initiating judicial reforms is the root cause of why the lower courts are burdened.

Advocate Ayaz Khan thinks lack of judicial provisions and judicial officers in the Sessions court is to blame for delay in hearings of the case. "The government deploys more and more people to arrest people, but the proportion of the judicial officers is low, which is why the cases take time to reach their end," he said. "The government needs to urgently appoint more and more judges to ease the burden."

Advocate Rizwan Merchant says one cannot generalize the time frame taken to conclude a case. "There are several cases such as NDPS, TADA, MCOCA, where the case is dependent on the number of witnesses which the prosecution brings on record. One cannot rush in the matters of serious offences such as murder, where the maximum punishment is death," he says.