New Delhi, July 9 (Inditop.com) Aiming to clear the backlog of pending criminal cases, Delhi High Court has constituted two benches that will only hear the appeals in these cases.
According to the court’s annual report, released earlier this year, 2,324 criminal appeals are pending till March 31, 2008. Among these, 34 cases were more than 15 years old and three of them are languishing since the last 20 years. More then half of the appeals were over five years old.
It was estimated that it will take 466 years to dispose all the criminal appeals.
“Since the assumption of a constant number of filings is patently unrealistic, the time taken to clear pendency would be even more that 466 years, if ever,” says the report.
Of the two benches constituted by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah, the first bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Ajit Bharioke will be hearing appeals dating from 1994 to 2000, while the second bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Indermeet Kaur Kochhar are dealing with cases from 2001 onwards.
“The parties concerned and their lawyers including legal aid lawyers should make efforts to attend their cases and should contact Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to know about the status of their case,” said project officer Sanjay Sharma.
He also added that non-representation of lawyers in the cases will result in the appeal being dismissed.
