ISLAMABAD – The National Judicial (Policy-Making) Committee (NJPMC) observed on Sunday that the number of cases that had been dealt with was quite encouraging and showed the confidence of the people in the judiciary’s ability to resolve their cases and protect their rights, which was a good omen for the nation.
A two-day NJPMC meeting chaired by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who also heads the committee, was held at the Supreme Court (SC). The committee said that the significant performance of the courts had strengthened the perception of the public about the rule of law in the country.
The committee stated that the National Judicial Policy of 2009 had worked well and achieved the target of disposing of old and new cases and any deficiency was on account of reasons beyond the control of the courts such as shortage of judicial officers.
The committee said that after the enforcement of National Judicial Policy, the Supreme Court, Federal Shariat Court, all high courts and district courts had decided a total of 4,965,731 cases. In this period, 4,572,690 new cases were filed, which meant that the number of decided cases was 393,041 higher than the number of cases filed, which was “an outstanding achievement”.
The Lahore High Court decided 41,618 old cases (cases filed up to December 31, 2008) and 145,295 new cases (cases filed on and after January 1, 2009). The Balochistan High Court decided 1,507 old cases and 3,487 new cases, the Peshawar High Court decided 3,390 old cases and 22,412 new cases and the Sindh High Court decided 4,385 old cases and 27,985 new cases.
The committee noted that even though all high courts were under pressure because of the shortage of judges, they had achieved a fairly high number of case disposals by working overtime. The performance of the district judiciary was also reviewed in the meeting.
The statistics presented by the NJPMC secretary showed that the district judiciary of all four provinces performed very well and a significant number of old cases had been decided after the enforcement of the National Judicial Policy. During the period under reference, the district judiciary of Punjab decided a total of 3,611,473 cases, which included 803,177 old cases.
After the implementation of the policy, the district courts of Balochistan decided 71,614 cases, which included 3,953 old cases. The district judiciary of Balochistan in particular did very well and is currently poised to decide any civil or criminal case within 6 to 9 months from the date of filing of a suit or complaint, which was a remarkable achievement, said the committee.
The Sindh district judiciary decided 423,959 cases, which include 84,099 old cases. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the district courts decided 580,884 cases, which include 103,877 old cases. The committee analysed the situation and, after taking into account ground realities, unanimously decided to extend the period of disposal of old cases up to September 30, 2011.
It stated that henceforth, old cases would be decided by giving priority according to categorisation i.e. old, older and oldest. It stated further that all the cases filed after January 1, 2009 should be decided by March 31, 2012. Chaudhry told the chief justices of the high courts to monitor the performance of district courts through member inspection teams.
It was also decided that courts should be asked to submit fortnightly reports on the disposal of old cases. He told the judges, however, to ensure that the quality of judgements should not be compromised.
