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In Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 of N.I. Act 1881

Not available · 2022 INSC 604Decided 19 May 2022
Not available
L. Nageswara Rao · B.R. Gavai · S. Ravindra Bhat

Background

Following an earlier Constitution Bench judgment issuing directions to speed up trials of cheque-dishonour complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, an Expert Committee was set up to tackle the huge backlog of such cases, which had grown from about 26 lakh pending complaints in November 2021 to over 33 lakh by April 2022 (roughly 8-12% of all pending criminal cases nationally). The Expert Committee's proposal to create brand-new "Special NI Courts" staffed by 1,826 new judicial officers at a cost of over Rs. 126 crore was found impractical to implement quickly, prompting the amici curiae to instead suggest a pilot scheme using retired judicial officers and retired court staff in the five states with the highest pendency (Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh).

Decision Breakdown

This is an interim, procedural order, not a final disposal of the suo motu proceeding, which the Court kept alive and listed for further review on 26 July 2022. The Court approved and directed implementation of a one-year pilot study (1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023) establishing 25 Special Courts (one in each of five high-pendency districts identified by the five High Courts), to be staffed by recently-retired judicial officers and court staff on contractual honoraria, after specialised four-week training. Detailed timelines were fixed for identifying infrastructure, staff, and eligible cases (only those where summons had been duly served), for circulating advance and weekly case lists, for referring settlement-willing matters to time-bound online mediation, and for weekly/quarterly progress reporting to the High Courts' Registrars General and to the Supreme Court, with each of the five High Courts directed to file compliance affidavits by 21 July 2022.

Lesson Learnt

Even where a legal problem (like the enormous backlog of cheque-bounce cases) has an existing judgment mandating reform, courts may use continuing suo motu proceedings to design and closely supervise practical, incremental measures, such as a time-bound pilot using retired judicial officers, when the ideal solution proves too expensive or slow to roll out immediately.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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