NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday disagreed with finance ministry’s view that creation of additional trial courts to deal with over 35 lakh pending cheque bouncing cases would not serve the purpose as most of the cases are stuck because of non-appearance of accused persons.
The department of financial services (DFS), under the finance ministry, through additional solicitor general Vikramjit Banerjee told a bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde, and Justices L N Rao and S R Bhat that “one of the major factors for the high pendency is the delay in ensuring the presence of the accused before the court for trial. It is understood that most cases are pending due to absence of the accused. Under such circumstances, it is not clear how additional specific courts would provide a solution to the problem of the large number of pending cases.”
Amicus curiae Sidharth Luthra flagged the DFS view to the bench, which read out the text of Article 247 of the Constitution, which allowed establishment of additional courts for better administration of laws. “At the hearing of this matter, we have suggested that the Union of India may provide for establishment of additional courts for the better administration of laws i.e. the Negotiable Instruments Act, under Article 247,” it said.