In a country where over four crore cases are pending in various courts, the Judicial Magistrate First Class court at Uran in Raigad district has two of the oldest criminal cases registered about 70 years ago.
According to a report in Times of India, the principal judge and magistrate Nilesh Wali had issued a non-bailable warrant on January 3 to produce both the accused on February 9. However, deputy police commissioner Pankaj Dahane said that whereabouts of both are not known.
“They were in their 30s when FIRs were registered, they would have been 105 years old today,” the TOI report quoted Dahane as saying. The report stated that with the police submitting a report saying they are untraceable, the magistrate stopped the proceedings under section 258 of the Criminal Procedure Code (close temporarily).
Status of Pending Cases in India
Lok Sabha had last year informed that over 4.70 crore cases are pending in various courts in the country, including 70,154 in the Supreme Court. The total number of cases pending in the 25 high courts stood at 58,94,060 as on March 21, 2022. The pendency in the apex court was recorded on March 2 last year.
In a written reply, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had said 4,10,47,976 cases are pending in the various district and subordinate courts. Disposal of pending cases in courts is within the domain of the judiciary, he said, adding that no time frame has been prescribed for disposal of various kinds of cases by the respective courts.
When Can Courts Dispose Cases
“Timely disposal of cases in courts depends on several factors which, inter-alia, include availability of adequate number of judges and judicial officers, supporting court staff and physical infrastructure, complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, co-operation of stakeholders — the Bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants — and proper application of rules and procedures,” Rijiju said.
There are several factors which may lead to delay in disposal of cases. These include vacancies of judges, frequent adjournments and lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing, the minister had observed.
Pending Cases in Raigad
The TOI report stated that the seven-decade-old criminal trials can resume if suspects are found. Then in their 30s, the accused were booked by Uran police for theft and violation of prohibition law and subsequently absconded, cops were recently sent out for inquiries in the neighbourhoods of addresses provided by them. Later as police submitted a report saying they are untraceable, the Judicial Magistrate First Class court at Uran stopped the proceedings temporarily.
TOI had reported on the decades-old pendency of the cases before the trial court on January 9. These were cases registered in the early years of the republic-one in 1953 and the other in 1955-when none of the seniormost judges in the country including the 32 in the Supreme Court were born.
Calculated to be Over 100 Years Now, All About the Accused & Cases
According to the TOI report, in the run-up to the hearings, policemen went in search of them; they focused mainly on senior citizens in case they remembered the names. Inspector Sunil Patil said the older of the two cases was registered on May 18, 1953 against a man named Jangbahadur Brijlal Joshi, who was 35 years old then and resided near the General Post Office in Mumbai.
Joshi was booked under section 66(E of the Maharashtra Prohibition Act, 1951 as he was found inebriated under the influence of spurious liquor (hooch) in a public place at Mora jetty. Joshi did not have a liquor permit. After being released on bail, he skipped court hearings for over a year and was untraceable.
On November 24, 1954, the Uran JMFC court said the case had become “dormant.” Patil was quoted as saying, “The other case was registered on August 9, 1955 against Shankar Sonu Malgund, who hailed from Neware village in Ratnagiri. Malgund worked as a domestic help for a Sheva villager.”
He had allegedly stolen cash and 30 grams of gold ornaments estimated to be worth Rs 240 (gold was around Rs 88 per 10 grams then) from his employer. Malgund was booked under section 381 of the Indian Penal Code. He too failed to turn up for hearings, following which on June 26, 1956, the Uran JMFC court said the case had become dormant.
Speaking about his efforts to trace the suspects, constable Sharad Bhat of Uran was quoted as saying, “As per orders of the senior inspector, I inquired at restaurants and a canteen in Mumbai where Joshi used to work, but nobody could provide information on him. I even inquired with some senior citizens in the locality, they claimed they had never heard of him. To find Malgund, I contacted the police patil (village chief) of Neware where he used to reside. He checked the records of the gram panchayat but did not find any information.”
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