HC to work on Saturdays

TT, Calcutta: Starting December 16, Calcutta High Court will function even on Saturdays to try and reduce its backlog of criminal cases.

It will not be a full court. Only one bench, that of Justice Joymalya Bagchi, will hear cases that have been delayed for a long time because the legal aid services could not provide lawyers to the accused. Justice Bagchi will have the power to assign lawyers from outside the legal aid service to these defendants.

"Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra last month proposed that the court stay open on Saturdays to clear the backlog of criminal cases," a high court official said. Similar advisories were sent to several other high courts.

Of the 2.98 lakh cases now pending in Calcutta High Court, more than half are criminal cases. But Justice Bagchi will deal with only about 30,000 of them where trial has not begun in the absence of lawyers.

Calcutta High Court has long been seen as holiday-happy. Several of its chief justices have had run-ins with lawyers' bodies over the practice of shutting the court down to mourn a lawyer's death. The tradition has been abandoned recently, and the court now closes an hour early at 3.30pm to mourn a lawyer's passing.

Three organisations of Calcutta High Court lawyers - the Bar Association, Bar Library Club and the Incorporate Law Society - have said they would agree to attend court on Saturdays, and even on Sundays, but only if the 39 vacant judges' posts are filled up.

Lawyers are, however, expected to attend court on December 16. Any lawyer whom Justice Bagchi assigns to an accused is likely to seek some time to prepare his case.

The high court now has 33 judges against a sanctioned strength of 72. "Three new judges are likely to join the court soon but the problem won't be solved as three judges will retire in February," Bar Association president Uttam Majumdar said.