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A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court drawing the Court’s attention to the issue of huge pendency of matters and non-listing of cases before the Patna High Court, reported LiveLaw. The petition has been drawn by Advocate Kamlesh Kumar and filed by Advocate Kabir Dixit on behalf of the petitioner.
The petition filed by the woman seeks protection against the harassment being faced by her on part of some musclemen in the village. According to her, the accused attempted to outrage her modesty and rape her thereby seriously injuring her and have continued harassing her since then.
According to the legal website LiveLaw, the petitioner has approached the Supreme Court instead of the Patna High Court on account of the “conditions with regard to listing of the matters” in the High Court where the urgent nature of regular and anticipatory bail is not getting listed for several months. According to the petitioner, the huge pendency of the cases and their non-listing is partly due to the manner of functioning but largely because of the huge vacancy of Judges in the Court.
The petitioner, who is a woman residing in a remote village of District, has alleged molestation and misbehaviour on part of some musclemen in the village. The horrific state of affairs has been highlighted by the petitioner as the musclemen who had allegedly harassed her have now closed the roads to her house and compelled other people to ostracise her as an intimidating tactic to withdraw the FIR. She was forced to leave her village.
She has further alleged that despite making a complaint and getting the medical examination done on the very same day when the accused persons allegedly attempted to rape her back in 2014, no FIR was registered against the miscreants. Eventually, even after the FIR was registered, none of the accused were arrested by the local police albeit instructions to do so were issued by the Superior Officer.
She contended that she has been forced and coerced by the accused in every way, so much so that in November, last year the only public road leading to her house was closed down, resulting in immense trauma and pain apart from utter difficulty in transportation and daily needs, reported LiveLaw.
She also wrote to almost every agency of State and a representation was also made to the highest placed officials in the State but it apparently bore no results. Hence, she approached the top court to issue direction to the authorities to ensure that she is accorded with appropriate protection against all kinds of harassment and to ensure removal of the blockage towards her house.
LiveLaw also reported that the petitioner has prayed for a direction to the concerned Station House Officer to lodge an FIR for blocking the way towards her house and complete the investigation in a time bound manner.
SabrangIndia had reported on the Budget session of 2021, where the Law Ministry had informed the Lok Sabha that the pendency of cases in High Courts has increased from over 45 lakh in January 2020 to over 56 lakh pending cases as of January 2021 which is roughly a 25% spike.
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Over 400 High Court judge posts vacant, 56 lakh pending cases: Law Ministry