The judicial institutions and Lok Adalats in Tripura have disposed of 79,854 cases while 2.32 lakh people benefited from 690 legal service camps in the last four and half years during the BJP-led government’s regime.

Addressing a press conference at the Civil Secretariat here in Agartala city on Friday evening, Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ratan Lal Nath said that there were 2,759 pending cases before formation of new government in 2018 and at present, 1,737 cases are pending in the High Court of Tripura. Before 2018, there were 1,07,089 pending cases in district and lower courts while there are 39,479 cases left for disposal.

Highlighting the status of cases in the apex court, he said “In the Supreme Court of India, a total of 295 cases of Tripura are pending comprising 42 criminal cases, 3 misapplication cases and 244 civil cases. Since 2018, 191 petitions have been filed making the state government a party till today and among them, the state government won 17 cases, lost 10 cases and received interim order in 33 cases and 118 are pending.”

Apart from this, the government supplied lawyers for free legal aid to 4,780 people who don’t have the ability to hire legal services. So far, 690 legal service camps have been organized where 2 lakh 32 thousand people were benefited. Moreover, 9 Lok Adalats have been held across the state and 11,222 cases were disposed of, he added.

Conveying respect to the justices, judges and judicial officers, Law minister doubted that Tripura’s High Court is the only high court in the entire country where hearings of 2021-22 fiscal years are going on. However, 12 cases are aging over five years while 50 cases in 2020 are still pending.

“The Tripura government has initiated several measures for establishing a better rule of law and door-step delivery of legal services and still continuing during the past over four and half years. Despite of COVID-19 pandemic for a span of 2.5 years, the work in the Law department continued at a fast pace”, Law minister Nath told reporters.

He said “Till now, 76 bills were enacted in the five years tenure of the present government while the then government enacted only 22 bills during their regime from 2013-2018.”

Citing the comparison of judicial institutions before and after 2018, Nath said that the previous government created five judicial districts in 25 years of regime while the present government created 3 judicial districts in five years starting from June 11, 2018. The District and Sessions Judge court at Sonamura in Sepahijala district, Khowai in Khowai district and Ambassa in Dhalai district. An additional district and sessions’ judge court has been opened at Bishalgarh for prompt disposal of cases. Three family courts were there before 2018 and now, five more were set up at Ambassa, Khowai, Sonamura, Belonia and Dharmanagar.

Sharing posts created and filling up the procedure, the minister said four judges’ posts were created for Dharmanagar, Khowai, Belonia and Sonamura, four posts of Principal Counsellor created, six additional district judges created. Government created 257 posts as supporting staff in the High Court while the recruitments were to be done by the Court authority. Earlier 29 notaries were appointed and now, more 40 has been appointed so that people can reap benefits.

All these initiatives, posts creation and development has revamped the judicial system of Tripura.

He further added that there are five retainer lawyers in the Supreme Court at present, eight in High Court, seven in District and Sessions’ Judge, 48 in Judicial courts, 38 in Executive courts, 13 lawyers are there in Judicial courts, 11 in POCSO Act, 8 for Chit Fund related cases, etc. Apart from these, 42 panel lawyers are there in the High Court and 66 panel lawyers in district courts across the state.

Replying to a query on construction of judicial institutions, Courts are under construction or identifying land at Jirania, Kumarghat, Mohanpur and Teliamura.