Elderly, disabled to get speedy justice

NEW DELHI: The Delhi district courts have finally woken up to the plight of senior citizens and disabled. In a recent order issued by the Delhi high court, all trial court judges have been asked to have a "special focus" on the cases involving senior citizens, minors, disabled and other marginalized groups and dispose of these cases at the earliest. This comes as a part of the campaign, 'Five-plus free', that aims to dispose of the cases pending for more than five years by the end of this year. The letter, which was sent recently to all district and sessions court judges, has asked the judicial officers to prioritize the cases involving such groups.

"I am to request you all that all judicial officers under your control may be asked to target to make the judicial system five-plus free by the end of 2012 as far as possible, along with special focus on disposal of cases of senior citizens, minors, disabled and other marginalized groups of the society and the under trials," said the letter issued by the registrar general of the high court.
For this, the high court has also provided for a mechanism to the trial court judges so that they can segregate cases of the target groups from that of the other old cases. In this, the trial court judges will be required to identify the cases of the targeted groups and maintain a separate database for the disposal of these cases.

The decision to put these cases have been welcomed by the lower court judges and lawyers alike, who say these sections of society suffer the most due to the long pendency of trials. "This is a great initiative on part of the courts. Justice delayed is justice denied and especially in cases of senior citizens and disabled, the justice should be given expeditiously," said lawyer Vijay Aggarwal, who is the counsel for several accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

The high court has asked the trial courts to file their progress report by January 20 next year. HC has also given the liberty to the trial court judges to "adopt appropriate measures" that the judges feel are required to bring down the huge pendency of cases. The one-year campaign, which started in February, comes at a time when the trial courts are dealing with a backlog of over seven lakh cases.

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