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SC notes high pendency in lower courts during Lakhimpur case trial
The Supreme Court emphasized the need for more judges and courts in UP to address the backlog of cases, highlighting the challenges in the Lakhimpur Kheri trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday noted the urgency to have more courts and judges to handle mounting pendency of cases in trial courts, as it was told that the judge conducting the trial in the Lakhimpuri Kheri violence case in Uttar Pradesh has a “humanly impossible” task of handling 789 trials.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said, “It is humanly not possible to decide so many trials,” as it was informed about this fact by senior additional advocate general (AAG) Sharan Dev Singh Thakur for the state.
The court asked Thakur, “Why are you not creating additional courts?. See how many trials are pending in UP,” as it took up a petition filed by the main accused in the case Ashish Mishra, son of former Union minister Ajay Mishra, who is currently out on bail. Mishra is accused of mowing down four farmers at Lakhimpur on October 3, 2021, as they protested the now-scrapped farm laws.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave appearing for Mishra pointed out that most of the special courts designated to exclusively try cases of MPs/MLAs are clogged and there is an urgent need to think about creating additional infrastructure to ease the burden on the current judicial workforce at the district level.
As regards the present case, the court said it is a state-specific problem. Dave requested the court to allow the accused to visit his family in Lakhimpur later this month. To be noted, the bail condition restrains Ashish Mishra from visiting Lakhimpur except on the day of trial.
In the past he has been allowed by the court to spend time with family during festivals on the ground that he will not attend any public meeting or influence witnesses in any manner.
With these conditions, the court allowed Mishra to visit his family from December 25 to January 1, the date by when he has to return to Lucknow.
The state further informed the court about the progress made in the trial. In the case against Mishra, 36 witnesses have already been examined with 85 others still remaining.
A total of eight people were killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Mishra was arrested within six days of the incident. As per the police charge sheet, the killings were pre-planned as Mishra arrived in a Mahindra Thar SUV along with a convoy of 3-4 vehicles at the site where the farmers were protesting. Infuriated by this act, protesting farmers pulled out three occupants from the car and lynched them.
A separate criminal case in this regard was registered by police against four farmers who too are out on bail.
