SC laments inordinate delay in delivering justice

New Delhi, Sep 24 (UNI) The Supreme Court has said incidents like lynching of ten suspected thieves in Bihar's Vaishali district, the gunning down of an undertrial prisoner in Patna city civil court and other similar incidents are an expression of total lack of faith in the country's judicial system due to inordinate delay in delivering justice.

A bench comprising Justice A K Mathur and Markandey Katju, not able to draw a curtain in a case pending for about 60 years since 1947, observed, ''before parting with this case, we again express our deep concern at the delay in disposing of cases in our courts.'' ''Recently, in a civil appeal number 1307 of 2001 decided on August 23, 2007, we had expressed our deep anguish about this situation, and had observed because of delay in disposal of cases people in this country are fast losing faith in the judiciary.

''We saw in the media news of lynching of suspected thieves in Bihar Vaishali district, the gunning down of an undertrial prisoner outside Patna city civil court and other incidents where people have taken the law into their own hands. This is obviously because many people have started thinking that justice will not be done in the courts due to the delay in court proceedings.'' ''This is indeed an alarming state of affairs, and we once again request the authorities concerned to do the needful in the matter urgently before the situation goes totally out of control.'' ''In the present case, suit was filed in 1947 for recovery of Rs 7,000/- and there was an order for attachment before the judgment of the dry fish of the defendant. A third party claimed ownership of the dry fish and applied for recalling the attachment order.

The apex court has directed district judge Kanyakumari, Nagercoil, preferably within a period of six months, to hand over 50 per cent share to both the parties namely appellant Moses Wilson, other respondents Kasturiba and others.

UNI