Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has embarked on an initiative to settle pending cases through mediation following Supreme Court guidelines. Currently, there are 17,046 pending cases on the high court’s original side. The number of cases filed with the original side so far this year is 2,712. Last year, 4,750 original side cases had been filed at the HC.There are 355 original side cases that have been going on for over four decades. In addition, there are 1,416 cases that have been going on for three decades while 2,143 have been going on for the past two decades. According to the Calcutta HC website, the pending case figures on appellate side are 1,85,602. Cases running for over four decades number 5,472, those for over three decades are 19,709 and over two decades are 38,000. Last year, 61,693 cases were filed with the HC appellate side. So far, 33,000 cases have been filed this year.In the Jalpaiguri circuit bench, there are 3,740 pending cases. Port Blair circuit bench has 485 pending cases. The pending cases in the district courts of Bengal are at a whopping 35,69,293. Among them, 14,755 are three-decades old, 74,000 have been going on for two decades while 5.5 lakh cases have been running for over a decade. On Tuesday, 3,429 new cases were filed in district courts in the state. So far this year, 5.9 lakh cases have been filed. In 2024, the figure was over 10 lakh. There are also nine cases pending in the special court of MP/MLA at Bidhannagar, where the nine people’s representatives are facing trial.Justice Surya Kant, who is the executive chairman of NALSA (National Legal Services Authority) and of MCPC (Mediation & Conciliation Project Committee) of Supreme Court, will hold a meeting with the judges of the high courts on Wednesday to push for a 90-day long ‘Mediation for the Nation’ campaign to settle suitable pending matters. The Calcutta High Court has already started a people-friendly approach in dispute resolution, and for this, the district courts have been directed to stress on mediation, said Sudip Banerjee, member-secretary of the Mediation and Conciliation Committee, Calcutta High Court.Banerjee said: “We are trying to identify cases of matrimonial disputes, accident claims, domestic violence, cheque bounce, commercial disputes, compoundable cases, and land acquisition matters to settle them through mediation.” The special mediation drive started on July 1. He said that Supreme Court gave consent to hold mediation even through the hybrid mode.
