By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The newly- appointed Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court Justice AK Goel has said that efforts are on to speed up disposal of pending cases in different courts of the Northeastern region.
Talking to media persons after his meeting Governor RS Mooshahary here on Monday, Goel said, issue of pending cases is not new to the Northeastern region. “There are more number of pending cases in different states,” he said.
Asked on the number of pending cases, Justice Goel said their number was not very large.
Till November 2011, there are 52, 897 pending cases in the Gauhati High Court for which Shillong Bench accounts for 812 cases, Imphal Bench has 3794 cases and Agartala Bench has 6393 cases.
While till December 31, 2010, there were 40,636 pending cases in the Gauhati High Court.
Pointing out that the steps were being taken to separate judiciary from executive in Meghalaya, he said he would examine the matter “so that the separation becomes effective at the earliest.”
In the bid to set up a separate high court in Meghalaya, the State Government has already separated judiciary from executive in East Khasi Hills district.
Justice Goel, however, downplayed the move to set up separate high courts in three Northeast states, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura., saying “the Northeastern states have permanent benches of the Gauhahti High Court and the judges who come to these benches are carrying out their duties diligently.”
The Gauhati High Court has jurisdiction over seven states with provisions for separate Benches for each of the states.
He said poor quality of investigation has affected the justice delivery system particularly in rape cases.
He was accompanied by Justice Jasbir Singh of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
It may be mentioned that Goel was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court on December 20.
He replaced Madan B Lokur.