Punjab & Haryana Acting Chief Justice AK Mittal focuses on backlog reduction of Cases

May 5, 2018:

Justice AK Mittal took over as Acting Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court this week itself.

On assuming the duties of the office of Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice AK Mittal indicated that to clear backlog of cases would be one of his focus areas. Roster issued today is indicative of it.

The last two paragraphs of the roster reads as follows-

“All RSAs and Civil Writ Petitions filed upto the year 2000 and which are pending shall be taken up for regular hearing by Hon’ble the Acting Chief Justice and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa sitting singly after lunch from Monday to Friday.

• Hon’ble Ist Division Bench will break after lunch. Hon’ble the Acting Chief Justice, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Arun Palli, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Amit Rawal and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Anil Kshetarpal shall take up on priority basis RSAs filed upto the year 2016, in which notice of motion has not been issued.”

Prioritising the disposal of old cases would go a long way to ease the dockets.

It is expected that in the coming days more steps would be taken to expedite the disposal and strengthen the justice delivery.

New Roaster of Punjab and Haryana High Court (Downloadable PDF)

With a shortfall of around 35 judges against its sanctioned number of 85, the Punjab and Haryana High Court is at the fourth number among the High Courts with highest vacancies.

The High Court has a combined jurisdiction spread over the states of Punjab and Haryana and UT Chandigarh and at the end of the previous year had a total number of 3,84,232 cases awaiting disposal.

Born on September 30, 1958 at Chandigarh, Justice AK Mittal passed B.Com. (Hons.) from Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University in the year 1977 and did LL.B. from Faculty of Law, Delhi University in 1980.

In the same year, Justice AK Mittal was enrolled as an Advocate with Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana and started practice in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in July 1980 and was elevated to the Bench of High Court of Punjab and Haryana on January 9, 2004.

New Roaster of Punjab and Haryana High Court by Latest Laws Team on Scribd