In the evening court, judicial officers would be available from 6 pm to 8 pm. Lawyers with less than seven years experience are allowed to practice in the evening court.
KOCHI: Strongly backing the setting up of evening courts, chief justice of India K G Balakrishnan said, on Saturday, that such courts have been started in Gujarat and Delhi and will be set up in other parts of the country, which will help reduce pendency of cases.
"Only petty offences will be handled in evening courts and will be disposed of quickly. The primary objective is to see that the daily wage earners shall not loose their wages by attending the courts," he said.
Inaugurating a training programme of judicial officers and lawyers on the techniques of mediation and conciliation, the chief justice said during his visit to Bangalore last month that he had found that 1.58 lakh petty cases were pending in city courts there.
The Karnataka government had immediately agreed to his suggestion for starting an evening court, he said.
In the evening court, judicial officers would be available from 6 pm to 8 pm. Lawyers with less than seven years experience are allowed to practice in the evening court.
"Our judicial officers are prepared to work and we have informed all state governments to give some incentive. The state was asked to pay 30 per cent of the basic pay as an additional incentive," he said.
"These are the various ways by which we are trying to dispose off pending cases as the number of cases being filed is increasing. We cannot find fault with them (people), because people are reposing confidence in judicial system," he said.
The aim is to see to it, that the confidence reposed by the people of the country "shall not in anyway be shaken or reduced", he said.
Justice Balakrishnan said 'we are struggling fiercely to reduce the pendency of the cases and over 3.50 crore cases is something which is very very high'.
In the Kerala High court, the pendency has increased by 20 per cent this year and in the Supreme Court it has increased by 23 per cent. "But we have got the same number of courts and judges",he said.
In Kerala, for the last five years not a single additional court has been sanctioned, he said.
Despite attempts by the chief justices and other judges to have more courts, it was not sanctioned by the respective state governments.
Pointing out that it might take 5 to 10 years to dispose oof all the pending cases, he said "that is why we are having Lok adalats, evening courts and these sort of mediation".
Mediation is working extremely well in various countries and in the US they have got "professionalised mediation" and 60 per cent of the cases are settled by this process, he said.
In China, 60 per cent of the cases are settled through mediation, while only 20 per cent go for trial. He said he had noticed in India that litigation is cheap and people do not prefer mediation process because they could go on with "thissort of litigation by paying some fees to the lawyers."
A large number of transfer cases are pending in the Supreme Court, he said.
Emphasising the need for mediation, he said "we want little more professionalised mediation".
"If we are prepared to save the time, save the litigation and save the judicial institution, we should go in for mediation", he said, adding "we should be prepared to settle at least a good number of cases - at least 20 per cent".
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