Handling an overload: Two new courts to handle FIR registration cases

Police stations under the purview of courts have also been shuffled

LAHORE: Two additional courts have been established under Sections 22-A and 22-B of the Criminal Code of Procedure (powers and duties of justice peace) to handle petitions seeking registration of cases by police. The decision was taken owing to an overload of such cases at the district courts.

Previously, there were five courts that would hear requests for the registration of FIRs. Judges Muhammad Naveed Iqbal and Nasir Javed Rana have now been appointed to the two new courts. The murder trial courts they had previously served in have been abolished and cases under trial in their courts have been transferred to other murder trial courts.

The police stations falling in the purview of the additional district and sessions courts have also been shuffled. According to the new arrangement, 14 judges will hear murder cases, three judges will hear other criminal cases, three judges will hear criminal appeals and revisions, 14 judges will hear civil appeals, three judges will look at civil revisions, four judges will hear civil suits, two judges will hear family appeals and one judge will look at rent appeals.

Work pending in the courts of 27 judicial officers has been withdrawn from their courts and handed over to 27 other judicial officers. The police stations under their purview have also been allocated to other judicial officers.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2016.