Efforts on to reduce case pendency by 25-30 percent by end of August 2019: Registrar PHC

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR: Registrar Peshawar High Court (PHC) Khawaja Wajih-ud- Din Friday said that concerted efforts and planning had been carried out by the Secretariat District Judiciary in line with the vision of Chief Justice PHC to clear backlog of cases.

He said this while addressing a press conference here at Peshawar High Court about the performance of the District Judiciary and PHC during first two quarters (September 2018 – February 2019) of the performance year.

“Our plan and methodology is showing positive results as backlog has been reduced below 2000,00 cases”, he said.

Sharing data of institutions and disposal of cases after the implementation of the Unity Policy at District Judiciary to gauge the performance of Judicial Officers, the Registrar said that total recorded pendency at the end of September 2018 was  204958 which has been reduced to 199,365 cases during last six months.

He said that overall 241,915 cases were instituted and 244,181 cases were disposed of from September 2018 to February 2019 in the District Judiciary.

Likewise, Peshawar High Court, disposed of 17,860 cases against total institution of 15, 967 for the same time period.

Overall pendency recorded at end of September 2018 was 37,952 which was reduced to 35,761 cases in two quarters of the performance year.

The Registrar said that hectic efforts were being made to reduce the pendency by 25 to 30 percent by the end of August 2019 which would be great achievement.

He said that Peshawar High Court had prepared, “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Service Act, 2018”, to streamline District Judiciary and sent the Act for government’s approval in November 2018.

He hoped that government would expedite the process for early promulgation of the Act,  adding that establishment of the Secretariat  the District Judiciary was also part of the Act.

Peshawar High Court in respect of newly merged districts, had timely informed the provincial government about human resource, financial and logistic requirements to make courts functional within these merged districts as par aspiration and demand of local population, he added.

He said that establishment of newly merged districts (NDMS) had been the top priority of the Chief Justice for which three dimensional strategy had been chalked out comprising immediate intervention, mid-term action plan and long-term plan.

The Registrar said that under mid-term action plan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy had been assigned compilation of prevailing customs on NMDs in a compendium form, recruitment and training of staff, providing infrastructure for courts and staff.

He informed that a committee had been constituted for monitoring midterm action plan which include  PSO to the Chief Justice, Deputy Secretary, representative of provincial government and SP Litigation, representative of I.G KP.

Giving details about five-year long term plan (2018-23), he said that PC-II costing Rs 11559.97 billion had been approved for construction of Judicial Complexes in seven NMDs and construction of 25 Tehsil Judicial Complexes.

He said that total 412 cases had been instituted in the courts of all newly merged districts till 21 March 2019 which was reflecting trust of people in the judicial system.

Khawaja Wajih-ud- Din said that digitalization and Case Flow Management Information System (CFMIS)  had been introduced in four districts  Mansehra, Abbottabad, Torghar and Swat to integrate these district with PHC to capture real time data and cases update information.

He said that CFMIS system would be extended to seven more districts under pilot project.

He said that Video Conferencing technology had been initiated for simultaneously holding timely and swift meetings and conferences with District and Sessions Judges and getting their feedback on key issues.

Small claims and minor offences courts had been operationalized in all 27 districts of the province for early disposal of all those civil and criminal cases that fall within the category of Small Claim and Minor Offences (SCMO) with an aim to provide inexpensive and expeditious justice, he added.