Saturday, December 3 2005 16:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: At least 26 million cases are pending before different courts in the country, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Y K Sabharwal today (Dec 3, 2005) said and called for immediate measures to stem the trend.

Expressing concern over the rising number of pending cases before the courts, the CJI said a "Reversal of the trend of an increase in pending cases must start immediately."

Inaugurating the West Bengal Judicial Academy here, the CJI said that of the 26 million pending cases, at least 18 million are criminal cases.

Most of these cases are pending before magisterial courts, Justice Sabharwal said.

"More than three million of the pending cases relate to petty offences and generally invite a monetary penalty as punishment," he said adding that such cases can be disposed of quite fast.

The CJI said that this number can be brought down drastically and suggested the appointment of retired gazetted officers along with retired judges as special magistrates to deal with the petty offences.

He said that West Bengal was high on the list of states having pending cases before courts and urged the Government to take steps to reduce the number.

Admitting that the number of pending cases in the state was high, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee,said that new courts were being set up and court buildings constructed for providing a better infrastructure.

"White collar and cyber crimes are on the rise," he said that training imparted by the academy would equip the judicial officers to deal with such cases.