NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday expressed serious concern at the long delay in hearing of appeals, even in murder cases, in the country's largest high court at Allahabad and sought suggestions from solicitor general Tushar Mehta and two senior advocates to find a way out to ensure speedy justice to litigants.
Attention of a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Surya Kant was drawn by senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, who sought bail for a murder convict while expressing apprehension that Allahabad HC may not be able to hear his client's appeal against conviction for at least a decade as the HC was hearing 20-year-old appeals at present.
Allahabad HC has a sanctioned strength of 160 judges but as of November 1, there were 59 vacancies. Allahabad HC also accounts for the highest pendency at 9 lakh cases among HCs. This makes it almost impossible for the HC to expeditiously hear appeals, even those by murder convicts.
With Kamat arguing that his client had been in jail for the last three years and there was no scope of early hearing of his appeal, the SC appeared to have been caught in a bind – it could neither direct the HC to expeditiously hear the appeal filed by Kamat's client nor could it grant bail to him during pendency of the appeal. It requested Mehta, Kamat and former Delhi HC judge and senior advocate R S Sodhi to assist the court in evolving a practical solution to this problem. It posted the matter for furtRead More – Source
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