To cut backlog, SC deadline for bail and trial in lower courts

FRAMING AN “action plan” for quick disposal of cases, the Supreme Court has set a deadline of a week for deciding bail applications and two years for disposal of all serious crime cases by sessions courts. The court further said that trials pending for five years or more should be decided by the end of 2017.

A bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and Uday U Lalit, underlining various directions issued by the apex court over time as well as resolutions passed in the joint conferences of chief ministers and chief justices, held that an appropriate action plan must be laid down for subordinate courts and high courts.

It asked all high courts to issue directions to subordinate courts that all bail applications should normally be disposed of by judicial officers within one week. “Magisterial trials, where accused are in custody, be normally concluded within six months and sessions trials where accused are in custody be normally concluded within two years,” said the bench.

The court said that efforts are to be made to dispose of all cases, which are more than five years old, by the end of 2017. According to records, there were more than 43 lakh cases pending for five years or more at the end of 2015 while 3,599 undertrials were in custody for more than five years, awaiting disposal of cases.

Referring to these statistics, the bench said that an action plan has to be put in place with targets to be achieved by judicial officers, which will be reflected in their annual confidential reports (ACRS).

“The high courts are requested to ensure that bail REPORT,

Subham Dutta ‘SC order arbitrary,’ High Court Judge C S Karnan said in Kolkata on Friday.