Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has recommended to bring in judges from other courts to expedite the pending cases at the Criminal Court.
A three-member committee from JSC investigated the matter of court proceedings being stretched over several years at the Criminal Court, and submitted a report on their findings to the parliament. JSC is seeking the parliament's counsel on how to address their findings. The report has now been forwarded to the parliament's Judiciary Committee for further research.
According to the report, less than four judges have worked consecutively at the court for a period longer than five years. Currently, nine judges are employed at the court.
The report estimates that over 61000 hearings are required to clear the pending cases. According to calculations, the nine judges at the Criminal Court would need to hold four hearings per day on average to clear all pending cases within two years.
Therefore, the JSC recommended to utilize two judges each from the Juvenile Court and the Drug court and temporarily re-assign them to the Criminal Court to expedite the pending cases.
According to the report submitted by JSC, there are 1910 pending cases at the Criminal Court, out of which 12 cases have been dragged out in court for over ten years, and 126 cases have been pending for over five years. The report noted that since the Criminal Procedure Code came into effect on 2nd July 2017, 181 cases were filed at the court.
The report further highlighted the large number of cases being handled by individual judges and also noted the educational qualifications and experiences of judges.
Judicial Service Commission recommended to bring in judges from other courts to expedite the pending cases at the Criminal Court.
