Have devised mechanism to deal with arrears of cases:Supreme Court

Court have taken bail and anticipatory bail matters first

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it has devised a "mechanism" to deal in a phased manner the issue of arrears of cases which have been a concern for the judiciary by bracketing them under various categories.

"There is a manner of dealing with the arrears of cases. We are doing it. There cannot be a date fixed for your matter. It will derail the manner in which we are doing it," a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud told a lawyer who had mentioned his matter for early hearing.

"We are taking group matters phase-wise, like we have taken bail and anticipatory bail matters first. Then we have taken accident claims matters and now we will move to other issues," it said.

The remarks by the apex court assumes significance as on April 2 during the sesquicentennial celebrations marking 150 years of the Allahabad High Court, CJI Khehar had raised the issue of pendency of cases in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Justice Khehar had said it was a matter of concern in all courts including the Supreme Court and had said that he was taking steps to reduce the burden on the judiciary.

Modi, who had also addressed the gathering, had assured the CJI that the government will make all efforts to back his resolve to reduce burden on the judiciary and pendency of cases.

During the hearing today when the advocate said that the apex court should at least fix a date for hearing of his matter, the bench declined it.

"Sorry, we cannot fix a date for your matter now. It will certainly come up for hearing but not like this. There is a mechanism and we are dealing with the arrears as per it. You cannot get it (your case) listed like this," the bench told the lawyer.