MARGAO: Justice delayed is justice denied. There are 16,061 cases pending till March 31, 2021 in various courts of South Goa district, which indicates the extent to which justice has been delayed and denied to the litigants.
The cases are mostly of civil and criminal in nature. Civil and criminal courts are functioning at Margao, Vasco, Quepem, Sanguem and Canacona, where a large number of cases of various types including civil suits, criminal cases, private petitions, claim petitions etc are pending.
MARGAO
Overall in all the courts under the district and Sessions court in Margao a total number of 1740 cases are pending including civil cases and criminal cases to be tried before the Sessions Court. This includes pending cases in the two fast track courts
In the District and Principal Court, Margao, as many as 368 cases are pending, while, in the Additional District Court (DC 1) 320 cases, Additional District Court (DC 2) 267 cases, Additional District Court (DC 3)
335 cases are pending. However, there are no cases pending before the Additional District Court (DC 4), while, in the Fast Track Court (I) 219 cases and Fast Track Court (II) 231 cases are pending.
Besides this, there are nine courts functioning from Margao Old Court building like Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate and others, where 8846 cases are pending, of which 1247 cases are pending before Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM ), 1261 cases pending before First Additional Court, Margao, 1048 cases before Second Additional Court, Margao, 1008 cases before Third Additional Court, Margao, 1527 before C Court Margao, 1526 cases before D Court Margao and 1229 before E Court, Margao.
VASCO
Similarly, there are four courts functioning at Vasco, where in all 2540 cases are pending. 691 cases are pending in A Court, 841 are pending in B Court, 498 are pending in C Court and 510 cases are pending in D Court.
QUEPEM, SANGUEM, CANCCONA
While in Quepem, total 1576 cases are pending of which 805 are pending before Quepem A Court, 771 before B Court while in Sanguem 544 cases are pending and at Canacona 815 cases are pending.
One of the litigants, Rajendra Raikar said that the procedure involved in dealing with the cases is so complicated that for fulfilling the same there is unnecessary delay in disposal of cases and this leads to lots of pendency of matters before the smaller courts.
Another litigant said, “We approach the courts with the hope that they will give us justice. But if we don’t get justice when required it causes great trauma.”
Advocate Amarnath Desai, a city lawyer, felt that sometimes the judges are so busy in their monthly point systems that they concentrate on matters which can be disposed of within a few months so that they get their points.
“This is the right time that the Point System by which judges are bound, is changed and there should be some other way by which appropriate check can be kept on the matters disposed by the judges,” Desai said.
He felt that sometimes in the bargain of disposal, litigants feel the denial of justice and their cases languishing in the pending lists.
According to Adv Amey Prabhudessai, a leading criminal lawyer, in order to bring down the pendency of cases, there should be proper coordination between the Investigating Officer and the government advocates.
“Many times because there are no witnesses, the matters get adjourned and the accused has to unnecessarily come to the court and be part of the pending litigation,” Adv Prabhusessai said.
He also desired the use of the latest technology to make the summons process quicker and efficient.
Advocate J Martin said that the procedure involved in Inventory Proceedings needs to be simplified, at least considering that it is basically for family partition.
Criminal advocate Sagar Gaonkar said that pendency increases due to insufficient number of courts and court staff.
In South Goa court, some of the hearings are pending for more than two decades like the cricket ticket gate scam case, which was disposed of recently. The chargesheet in this case was filed by the Margao police in the year 2001.
The judge in this case observed that it became very clear that the PI, Margao Town Police Station was simply not interested in pursuing this matter and certainly not interested in bringing the witnesses before the Court for this trial.
The said PI has clearly abdicated his duties in effecting service and that has, in a very big way, affected the case of the prosecution.
It is primarily this factor, which led the Court to close the evidence, the judge observed.
Government has to take measures to reduce the time taken in disposal of cases so as to ensure timely delivery of justice.
