Wasti has settled 1,164 cases while 1,000 cases were settled by Justice Regmi, who is in line to become the next Chief Justice.[break]
Justices Bharat Raj Uprety, Bal Ram KC, Tahir Ali Ansari, Prem Sharma and Krishna Prasad Upadhaya are the other justices who settled large numbers of cases during the fiscal year.
Among appellate court judges, Abadesh Kumar Yadav (now a SC justice), Lokendra Mallik and Bishwover Prasad Shrestha settled the large numbers of cases during the same year. They settled between 700 and 800 cases each.
Among district court judges, Siraha District Court Judge Ramesh Raj Pokharel settled the largest number of cases during fiscal year 2066/067 BS.
According to the Supreme Court (SC) annual report which was submitted to President Dr Ram Baran Yadav nearly three weeks ago, Pokharel settled 792 cases over the fiscal year.
In its annual report, the SC has categorized the performance record of all district court judges in a bid to find out who set what kind of record, if any. And Pokharel was found to have settled more cases even in a difficult posting. Siraha district is considered the most conflict-prone district in the country since the peace process begun.
However, SC officials said that judges who have been posted to district courts where the case loads are very low or judges who were assigned to different tasks beside their routine work cannot be compared with others in terms of performance record.
After Pokharel, Dang District Court Judge Mohammad Junaid Aajad settled the most court cases among district court judges. The report says that Judge Aajad settled 717 cases in fiscal year 2066/067 BS.
After Pokharel and Aajad, Taplejung District Court Judge Meghnath Bhattarai disposed of the largest number of cases. Bhattarai resolved 701 cases within the fiscal year.
"In some cases, even a competent judge cannot settle a large number of cases due to various factors. Hence, we shouldn´t assess the performance of judges solely on the basis of the number of cases settled," SC Assistant Spokesperson Hemanta Rawal told Republica.
According to Rawal, even competent judges cannot settle a significant numbers of cases due to non-cooperation from agencies concerned and sometime because of the complicated nature of the cases.
The SC annual report states that only two other district judges have resolved more than 600 cases over the fiscal year in question. Kaski District Court Judge Neel Kantha Upadhaya and Kathmandu District Court Judge Balendra Rupakheti disposed of 605 and 604 cases respectively.
Similarly, 17 District Court judges have settled more than 500 cases. Those settling more than 500 cases are Judges Omkar Upadhaya, Kul Prasad Sharma, Chinta Mani Baral, Nagendra Lal Karna, Pushpa Bahadur Thapa, Bal Krishna Uprety, Balmukunda Dawadi, Bhoj Raj Adhikary, Murari Babu Shrestha, Rajendra Kharel, Ram Prasad Adhikary, Laxmi Krishna Shrestha, Lekhnath Dhakal, Binod Mohan Acharya, Bimal Prasad Dhungel and Sita Prasad Pokharel.
According to the report, 5.85 percent more cases have been settled through the SC during the year as compared to the previous fiscal year.
The SC settled 44.74 percent of cases the previous fiscal year. Nearly 50 percent of backlog cases have been settled through the SC this year, states the report.
Some 6,355 new cases were registered at the SC this year. “We settled 1,717 (27.02 percent) cases out of the total of newly registered cases,” the report further says.
Similarly, the appellate courts have settled 14.94 percent more cases across the country as compared to the previous fiscal year. Fifteen of the appellate courts have settled more than 60 percent of backlog cases this year. The report states that some 39 district courts have settled more than 40.69 percent of cases within fiscal year 2066/067 BS.
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