Three new banking courts to be set up in Punjab

LAHORE: A meeting of judges from banking courts across Punjab was held at the Lahore High Court (LHC) today (Tuesday) to discuss backlog of cases, ARY News reported.

Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan told the meeting that 18 banking courts were operating in Punjab, however, no judges were appointed in 10 such courts in the province.

It was decided to form new banking courts in Sialkot to minimize burden of cases. The meeting agreed to set up two new banking courts in Faisalabad and one in Sialkot.

Read also: 40,535 cases pending in Supreme Court, full court meeting told

The authorities were directed to build record rooms and fire-proof cupboards for safety of case records. The meeting also approved payment of Rs 50,000 as house rent allowance for banking courts’ judges.

The judges also took notice of absence of federal secretary law in the meeting.

The meeting also unanimously decided to appoint a focal person to deal with banking court matters.

It may be noted here that a full court meeting on Feb 6, with all judges of the Supreme Court in attendance, was informed that 6,407 cases were filed in the apex court between Jan 1, 2018 and Dec 31, 2018. Of them, 6,342 cases were settled and subsequently disposed of.

The full court session also noted that currently 40,535 cases were pending in the apex court. The meeting expressed satisfaction on the ratio of settled and pending cases.

It was also unanimously decided to constitute special benches to hear cases of different nature. The judges also decided that e-court system will be installed on principal seat and other registries of the Supreme Court.