Forum for fast trial of criminal cases likely

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court is attempting to explore means of having an alternative forum to hear criminal cases within a reasonable time period as high courts are currently unable to dispose these appeals quickly, forcing convicts to remain incarcerated for years.

A bench of Justice AK Goel and Justice UU Lalit has asked government law officers, attorney general KK Venugopal and additional solicitor general Pinky Anand to address the court on the question of “what can be remedies to ensure hearing of criminal appeals within reasonable time”.

The bench appointed senior advocate Dhruv Mehta to assist the court in this matter.

The bench also adverted to the April meeting of SC’s Arrears Committee — an administrative committee Justice Goel heads to deal with mounting pendency in courts — where an alternative mechanism by way of creating courts of appeals was discussed.

In the hierarchy, such courts will be above district judges but below high courts. The committee minutes reflect the low disposal rate in high courts. As many as 16.29 lakh cases in HCs have been going on for more than five years and 7.43 lakh cases for more than 10 years.

The apex court bench initiated the proceedings on its own after coming across a case from Jharkhand where the state high court politely turned down the top court’s request to hear a murder appeal “expeditiously.”

The convict in the case is facing life imprisonment and had approached the Supreme Court for bail on account of delay in hearing of his appeal.

He has been in jail for more than 10 years. But the high court said it was “unable to hear appeals of the convicts where they are in custody for more than 13-and-a-half years due to paucity of bench” and also because “much older appeals were pending where the convicts have undergone as many years.”

AT PRESENT, HCs ARE UNABLE TO DISPOSE CASES QUICKLY WITH MORE 16 LAKH CASES IN THEM GOING ON FOR FIVE YEARS AND 7.43 LAKH FOR 10 YRS