Cheque bounce cases to be assigned priority level

CHANDIGARH: All those who have often ranted about having to frequent the city from the hinterlands of Punjab and Haryana just to get their meagre-amount cheque bounce cases settled in Chandigarh's district courts will soon find a reason to smile. Waking up to their plight, the authorities have decided that their cases be taken up on a priority basis.
"To avoid harassment and save time and money of litigants coming from Punjab and Haryana to get their cheque bounce cases cleared on repetitive dates, we've decided to decide their cases in one go.All they need to do is move an application, requesting to take up their cheque bounce case during Lok Adalat and pre-Lok Adalats organized in Chandigarh's district courts," said chairman of district legal services authority KK Garg, who also happens to be the district and sessions judge, Chandigarh.
There are some 50,000 cases filed under Section 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act and still pending. Though in January 2009, around 65,000 cases were pending and the authorities decided these litigations regularly last year, the institution rate of cheque bounce petitions filed by banks and financial institution is forcing the pending rate to head north.
Official data reveals that on a daily basis 50 new cases are filed in the district courts under Section 138 of NIA. The main contributor in cases rising 10-folds is complaints by banks and financial institutions. There are cases involving petty sums, like that of Rs 1,250 installment in which a person had to come from a remote Punjab village for at least six hearings before settlement.