EVENING COURTS

The piling up of court cases is a nationwide problem and everybody, from the poorest man to the highest authority, talks about 'justice delayed is justice denied;' but it is only Gujarat that came out with an innovative way to improve the situation by starting Evening Courts since November 2006. The initial response has been overwhelming. Using the existing infrastructure, 67 such courts have already been made operational and in a short span of time, 1,16,000 cases have been disposed off. The evening courts do not imply only additional working hours but also a system which enables the common man to seek justice without wasting his working hours during the day.

In addition to this, the experiment of Lok Adalat (People's Court) is also gaining ground. More than one million cases have been disposed off during the year 2006. Another innovative approach is the Nari Adalat (Female Court). Women groups have organized themselves into these informal judicial forums in order to redress the grievances and cases of women through consultation and negotiation. So far, 19 Nari Adalats have been set up and are functioning in a very professional manner.