Bengal Govt seeks HC assent to start circuit bench at Jalpaiguri

Kolkata, July 9 (UNI) The West Bengal Government was awaiting the Calcutta High Court assent to start functioning in the proposed circuit bench at Jalpaiguri at the earliest, Law Minister Rabilal Moitra today said.

''The Government has completed the infrastructure of the circuit bench and fulfilled some recommendations of the High Court. We have also submitted a status report and it is now upto the High Court to take a decision,'' he told Assembly Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim.

During the question hour, the Speaker asked the Minister as to why the High Court cicuit bench was getting delayed to start functioning even though crores of rupees had already been spent.

Earlier, in reply to a question, Mr Moitra informed the House that the number of pending cases in the High Court and lower courts were 271059 and 1750958 respectively.

He said altogether 151 fast track courts and a CBI court had been set up in the state for speedy disposal of cases while five family courts had come up in the state and efforts were being made for more appointment of judges.

The Minister, however, said the Government was stressing more on out of court settlement.

UNI