Pindi gets four model courts to try criminal cases

LHC chief justice says similar courts to try civil cases will be established soon to clear massive backlog

RAWALPINDI: To provide speedy justice to the public and to clear the massive backlog of cases, model courts have been set up in Rawalpindi.

Four of model courts – mostly hearing criminal cases - were inaugurated by Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Justice Mansoor Ahmed Shah on Thursday.

He said that these courts were part of a pilot project to dispose of criminal cases quickly. Apart from the four in Rawalpindi, two more have been set up in Taxila and Gujar Khan.

Addressing judicial officers and representatives of bars in Rawalpindi at the inaugural ceremony, Justice Shah said that the bar and bench were duty bound to provide speedy justice to the public.

However, he said that the LHC did not want to create an oasis by establishing model courts, rather the objective was to improve the criminal justice system across Punjab and make the judiciary in Punjab a model for other provinces to follow.

Highlighting features of the new courts, the Punjab CJ said that an additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) routinely decides around six cases every month. By contrast, Justice Shah said, that the model court had decided 22 criminal cases in a month.

This, he said, was key to speedily resolving the 30,000 criminal cases which were pending before session courts. However, he pointed out this was only possible in coordination with lawyers, the prosecution, police and jail authorities.

Noting that they required as many as 700 judges to fill gaps and improve the rate of disposing of cases, Justice Shah said that the high court would also establish model courts for disposing of civil cases – of which around 600,000 were currently pending in the entire province.

In this regard, he said that three senior civil judges had been appointed in each district. One of these judges would be responsible for taking care of administrative issues, including the summons to litigants.

Justice Shah added that an automated system would soon be set up to make the process of issuing notices and summons more effective.

The LHC chief justice further said that a committee of the high court had been set up to upgrade the syllabus and examination for new judges. He announced that exams to hire new judges would be held in October.

Earlier, while briefing judicial officers and bar representatives about the model courts, Rawalpindi District and Sessions Judge Sohail Nasir said that based on an idea about model courts shared by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa of the Supreme Court, the LHC had established model courts in four districts including Narowal, Attock, Chiniot, and Vehari in February 2017.

Specialised to try only criminal cases relating to murders and drugs, Judge Nasir said that these courts had decided 629 criminal cases, including 140 murder cases, 328 narcotics cases, and 161 other cases in the first 28 days. Moreover, 22 model courts in the four district also recorded statements from as many as 2,281 witnesses.

“The performance of these pilot model courts encouraged the high court to establish six more such courts in a major district of Punjab,” the sessions judge said.

He added that the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) centres would soon start working in Rawalpindi.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2017.