PHC CJ inaugurates first-ever mobile court in Peshawar
Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan inaugurated the first-ever mobile court on Saturday in a special ceremony held on the PHC premises.
Judges, lawyers and other people from different walks of life attended the ceremony.
The mobile courts have been established in a special bus. The project has been completed with the financial assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at a cost of Rs 15 million.
CJ Khan proposed the idea of mobile courts in the province soon after his appointment in November 2011. He had said that there were several things on his priority list and setting up of mobile courts was one of them in order to provide inexpensive justice to the common man at his doorstep.
Khan issued two notifications on Friday under Sections 9, 14 and 17 of Civil Court Ordinance which conferred powers on the CJ to direct any judge or magistrate to hold a camp court at any place within the district.
One notification was issued for mobile courts dealing with the criminal cases and the second for the hearing of civil cases.
Two laws were also proposed, including Criminal Mobile Courts Act 2012 and Civil Mobile Courts Act 2012.
During the launch of the mobile courts, seven cases were fixed for hearing that were to be decided by the mobile courts on the PHC premises in front of all the participants of the launching ceremony.
The mobile courts would hold sittings at union councils, police stations or other places specified by the High Court on rotation basis on the direction of the district judge.
Legal experts believe that these courts would be helpful, especially in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where regular courts are situated in district and tehsil headquarters which are far away from villages.
Even for minor cases, people from those areas had to visit the district and tehsil headquarters to attend the court proceedings, they said