In the Patna High Court, the Advocate Association has urged for holding of court hearings further on Saturday and Sunday. Currently, in the High Court, 14 judges are hearing criminal cases and only five judges are hearing civil cases who are burdened with two lakh cases.
On July 17, the International Justice Day, Yogesh Chandra Verma, chairman of the coordination committee of the three lawyers associations of the High Court, said that he wished that the High Court administration would take concrete steps to settle the pending cases in the coming days. He appealed to open the court on Saturday and Sunday also in view of the pending cases. Along with this, he says that the period of court work should also be increased so that the maximum number of cases can be executed.
This month, the Patna High Court took the initiative to hear some civil cases which are more than 30 years old. The number of these cases is around 2411. Around 69,109 writ petitions are pending in the High Court.
It is pertinent to note that General Secretary of Advocates Association Shailendra Kumar Singh and former representative of Bar Association Vikas Kumar have demanded the appointment of new judges in the Court and also talked about increasing the number of cases in online hearing so that the case can be executed in a better way.
Also Read: A representative democracy survives and evolves on the back of an informed citizenry: CJI Ramana
Significantly, with the decrease in the number of judges in the Patna High Court, the list of litigation cases is increasing. Now the total number of justices has been reduced to 19, while this number should be 53. So far three judges have retired in the year 2021. One is to retire in September. Then only 18 judges would be left. In such a situation, the lawyers have demanded a hearing on Saturday and Sunday too.