Soon, matrimonial dispute cases to be a subah-shaam affair

Here's some respite for couples embroiled in divorce cases, custody battles and maintenance disputes. They no longer have to spend their entire working day at the courts for the hearings. Gujarat High Court is in the process of starting morning and evening family courts in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat. The state government has issued a notification in this regard and now it is up to the high court to have first-of-itskind family courts in the country.

Sources connected to the development said that the litigants and their lawyers can choose whether they want to put up their case before the morning court or the evening court. If both the litigants agree on a specific time, their case would be heard during those hours only. At present, there are four family courts in the city in Old High Court campus. "We come across several cases where couples spend almost an entire day when their case comes up for hearing in the court.

They waste one whole day, setting aside other important work, to attend the hearing. To rid people of inconvenience, the state government came up with the idea of starting a morning and evening family court," Pradipsinh Jadeja, Minister of State for Law, told Mirror. He said that the idea was presented during a chief justices and CM's conference a couple of years ago and that the state was ready to implement the same. "We have allocated special budget to start the court and also intimated the high court about it," Jadeja said.

"We have received the notification from the state law department. The process of selecting judges and staff who can work extra hours in the morning or in the evening has been initiated," said P R Patel, Registrar General of Gujarat High Court. According to the notification issued by the state government on March 29 this year, the first of its kind family court would begin at Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara. The morning family court shall hold sitting on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday of all months from 8.30 am to 10.30 am.

The evening family court shall conduct hearings every Tuesday and Thursday from 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm. The state has approved a judge and administrative staff of eight people for Ahmedabad family and evening courts, and a judge and an administrative staff of seven people for Surat and Vadodara each. The judge would be given 25 per cent extra remuneration on their basic pay while the staff would get 20 per cent more to put in additional hours. The state government and high court had started evening court in 2006, which functioned till 2014, to dispose of petty cases.

During the period, the state government claimed to have disposed of 9 lakh cases with the help of the bar and the judicial staff. The idea behind morning and evening courts is to rid litigants of inconvenience than to clear the backlog of cases, sources said. However, the lawyers doubt the feasibility of these courts. "How can lawyers spend their day from 8.30 am till late evening in a family court? They also practise in other courts," said Sanjiv Thaker, a senior lawyer with the family court.

"There should be a system to ensure faster delivery of judgment instead of wasting people's money on courts with extended hours. Before implementing the decision, lawyers should be taken into confidence," he said. Earlier, too, lawyers had protested the concept of evening court and after many rounds of negotiations, they had agreed to it.

There should be a system to ensure faster delivery of judgment instead of wasting people's money on courts with extended hours.-Sanjiv Thaker, Senior lawyer, family court