‘Holiday court’ to help clear backlog of cases in Tripura
By IANSMonday, August 23, 2010
AGARTALA - The Guwahati High Court has decided to set up a ‘holiday court’ in Tripura to deal with the huge backlog of pending cases, a judge said here Monday.
“The ‘holiday court’ would be held on the last Sunday of each month. The first such court would be held Aug 29,” West Tripura district and sessions judge Gautam Debnath told IANS.
“Every second Saturday has been fixed for a ‘lok adalat’ (people’s court) and the first such would be held Sep 11,” he added.
The judge said the holiday courts would settle cases relating to petty offences, motor vehicles, accidents, family disputes and societal quarrels.
Tripura would be the only state amongst the eight in the northeast to hold such courts on a regular basis and on a fixed date.
The Guwahati High Court has jurisdiction over seven northeastern states and has permanent benches in some, including in Tripura. Sikkim, the eighth northereastern state, has its own high court.
A team of lawmakers and lawyers from Tripura had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj in August 2008 to demand a high court for the state.
According to a senior official of the Tripura law department, around 77,500 cases have been pending in different courts in Tripura, including at the Agartala bench of the Guwahati High Court, where 6,320 cases were pending.
