The pendency of court cases in Goa is humungous and the government should do all in its power to dispose them off at the soonest. 57, 283 cases are pending in 57 Goan courts with the Judicial Magistrate First Class at Mapusa alone accounting for 2,297 cases. The High Court of Bombay at Goa seeks quarterly reports about unresolved cases with the Chief Justice himself monitoring the proceedings but it appears that the state government is either not painting the true picture or is least bothered about the suffering litigators. Even if 57 cases are heard everyday (1 in each court) it would take atleast 1,000 days for a case to come up for hearing. The government should set up fast-track courts to reduce the pendency which should not be too difficult a task given that no posts of judges are vacant. Also a majority of the cases are civil disputes most often relating to property which do not need too much time for disposal, require rudimentary jurisprudence and minimum involvement of law enforcement authorities. Mediation could also be looked upon as a viable alternative to costly long drawn out legal proceedings ( tareekh pe tareekh ), which would be a win-win situation for both the courts and the litigants.
