Chandigarh, December 15: Consistent efforts are afoot for effective disposal of pending revenue cases and the court proceedings are being conducted on regular basis for their speedy disposal, informed an official spokesperson of Government of Punjab.
He informed that in the interest of justice and equity Chief Minister Punjab sought speedy adjudication and disposal of revenue cases. In wake of staggering pendency of revenue cases and their tardy disposal rate, Chief Minister desired orientation of the revenue courts for speedy disposal, said he.
Responding to CM’s concern, the Revenue Department has expedited the disposal of cases mainly those pertaining to land transfer, demarcation, partition, mutation, khasra girdawari, lambardari ,surplus new act cases, stamp act(47-A) and miscellaneous appeal cases.
In the month of November 2017, as many as 140 cases have been disposed of by the Financial Commissioners at State Level and 146 cases by the Divisional Commissioners. The FCR court tops the chart by disposing 72 cases out of a total of 326 cases, including the cases dating back to the year 2007 which amounts to an attractive to 22% disposal rate in a month. Similarly, at divisional level in the same month, the court of Divisional Commissioner Patiala registered 7.29 % disposal rate by deciding 86 out of 1179 cases.
But, with the State Financial Commissioner courts cumulative disposal rate being 5.15% and the Divisional Commissioner courts cumulative disposal rate being a meagre 2.89% government is mulling over fixing a timeframe for the disposal of cases.
In fact, a special meeting has been slated for December 19, under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Punjab, to take stalk of the situation and have a detailed review of working of quasi-judicial courts.
It is anticipated that revenue officials found reluctant or unwilling to help the revenue courts in the disposal of cases would immediately be proceeded against under the relevant laws. Non-adherence to the time limit would be deemed as inefficiency in terms of relevant service rules of government servants and duly reflected in the personal dossier of the officer concerned.
Vinni Mahajan, Financial Commissioner Revenue, opined that “the slow motion syndrome is lethal to speedy justice. Reducing the shelf life of every case that is filed before the court is a must for the benefit of general public. Without a robust and an efficient justice and grievance redressal system, the aim of bringing the case institution and pendency figures in close proximity, would be a far-off peak.” FCR appreciated the role of lawyers who were very supportive and worked in tandem with the court for the swift disposal of revenue cases.