Cases related weapons, black marketeering, public offence, poaching of wild lives and those with verdict of 1-1.5 year's jail-term have been transferred to the district court from the quasi-judicial bodies.
"128 cases from the quasi-judicial bodies have been transferred to the district court, which has already the burden of handling regular cases," court registrar Birendra Malla said. Such trend, the court claims, will affect its annual target.
Malla said that the district administration office is one of key quasi-judicial bodies that have recently moved the largest number of cases to the district court. Likewise, the district forest has also transferred four cases to the court.
Cases, related to Article 152, Sub-article (2) and Article 300, Sub-article (7) of the Constitution, are now under the jurisdictions of district court. Though the cases have been transferred to judiciary, lack of manpower to handle them has become a serious challenge for it to handle. The court has currently two judges - Kailash Prasad Subedi and Krishna Jung Shah.
Apart from that judicial process adopted by court and the erstwhile quasi judicial bodies are different. This has further complicated the process for delivering justice. "The court's investigation process is quite different than those of quasi-judicial bodies," Malla said. "Investigation process in most of the cases transferred has been pending for many years. For the court to deliver justice, it will have to reopen investigation into the cases and than only deliver a verdict."
Before the promulgation of the new constitution, District Court had estimated that there would be 641 cases in the current fiscal year, and aimed to deliver the verdict on 446 cases. But with the new provisions coming into effect, 596 cases have already been filed at the court by the Mid-January.
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