Judicial officers protest against shortage of judges

MUKTSAR/FARIDKOT: The infamous Punjab Public Service Commission job-for-cash scam, which led to sacking of some judicial officers and removal of some other judges under the alleged charges of corruption, has had a cascading effect on the judicial work here.
The courts in Muktsar and Faridkot districts were already facing acute shortage of judges—in Faridkot, four out of the six posts of civil judges are lying vacant for the last many months—when the withdrawal of works from two judges of Muktsar on February 14 and removal of two judges in the PPSC scam aggravated the situation leading to piling up of cases in the area, much to the chagrin of litigants.
Two judges in Faridkot, Sunita Rani and RL Chauhan, have to hear hundreds of cases daily in lower courts. The former conducts judicial court from her retiring room due to health reasons. These two judges have a work load of six judges, who deal with about 6,000 regular cases.
Besides this, they also have to dispose of scores of challans under Motor Vehicle Act. Those arrested throughout the district have also to be produced before them. Moreover, juvenile offenders from Moga, Muktsar, Ferozepur and Faridkot districts are also to be brought here as the jurisdiction for juvenile offenders falls in the Faridkot court only.
As a result, these judges are a stretched lot and litigants are often at the receiving end. In the absence of proper sitting arrangements, they are forced to keep standing from 10 am to 5 pm. In Faridkot, the problem started in 2001 when one of the five civil judges posted here was shifted to Moga and the cases pending his court were distributed among the remaining four judges.
During the following two years, while one judge was transferred from here, another was sacked in the PPSC scam. Then one senior sub judge SK Arora was promoted as additional district and sessions judge and shifted to Ludhiana.
In Muktsar, after the Punjab and Haryana High Court withdrew work from additional district and sessions judge Beer Inder Singh chief judicial magistrate KK Lumba, work load on the remaining two judges increased. A senior advocate said that many problems arose due to shortage of junior judges.
Though many posts of judicial officers were lying vacant for the last many years in the state, the situation became difficult after about 40 judges recruited during Ravinder Singh Sidhu’s (former PPSC chairman) tenure were sacked by the state government, he added.
During last two to three years, while number of junior judges were elevated, there were none to fill the vacant posts. Sources in the office of the sessions judge here say that the high court has been apprised of the situation but no solution has been provided so far.