PANAJI
There are 41,316 cases pending in lower courts in Goa with a bulk of these cases, or around 65 per cent in various courts in North Goa as on December 31, 2015.
This was revealed by Minister for Law Francis D’Souza to a listed question in the Assembly asked by Curtorim legislator Aleixo Lourenço. He said there are 26,816 cases pending in courts in North Goa while in South Goa the figure was 14,500.
The reasons as elaborated by D’Souza for the pendency include posts of judges remaining vacant, to transfer of tenancy, mundkar and rent cases to the civil courts, cases being stayed by the appellate courts, repeated adjournments being filed by the parties and advocates, besides inability of the courts to serve notices on some of the parties especially those who reside outside their jurisdiction.
The figure remains stubbornly high despite the courts disposing close to 19,000 cases per year in each district. Instead, the figure of cases has been consistently rising over with the pendency going up by a few thousand cases every year.
The statistics do not include the cases pending before the Bombay High Court at Goa, which itself will run into a similar figure.
To another question also asked by Lourenço, D’Souza revealed that there are eight vacancies (of lower court staff) to be filled at district and subordinate courts in the North Goa District with three vacancies in the District & Sessions Court, North Goa, Panaji and five vacancies in the subordinate courts in the North Goa District while there are 3 vacancies in the District & Sessions Courts, Margao and nine vacancies in the Subordinate Courts, South Goa.
