TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Up in arms over the government notification establishing evening courts, lawyers from South Goa on Wednesday questioned the rationale behind the decision when the subordinate judiciary is waiting for the filling up of vacancies of judges for the last several months.
Agitated lawyers have also demanded to know why the High Court, which is facing equal or more pendency of cases, has been kept out of the purview of the Goa Evening Court Rules, 2014 mandating establishment of evening courts, expected to function between 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm.
Addressing the media after an extra ordinary general body meeting, South Goa Advocates Association President Adv Rajiv Gomes said the panel would petition the government demanding forthwith withdrawal of the Evening Courts. “There is a perceptible lethargy in filling up of existing vacancies in the subordinate judiciary and that they should be first filled up before establishment of evening courts, as establishment of evening courts will entail a huge burden on the exchequer. The notification is also not specific about the type of cases which will be tried by the evening courts, unlike the notification in other States, which has caused an unwarranted suspense pertaining to the jurisdiction of the evening courts,” he said.
Pointing out there are hardly 11,000-odd cases pending in entire South Goa district, Adv Gomes said that filling up of the three posts of Junior division Judges and a district Judge could help clear the backlog. He also demanded to know why the government is not setting up the Children’s Court, Corruption Court, apart from the Administrative tribunal in South Goa if it is really concerned with the backlog of cases. “In the absence of these courts, litigants and lawyers from South Goa are forced to travel to these Courts in North Goa”, he said.
