500 judges on SIR duty, cases pile up across Bengal courts | India News
KOLKATA: The involvement of 500-odd judicial officers – lower court judges from across Bengal in ruling on dubious cases flagged in the voter list published in February has slowed the disposal of cases in state courts.The overall “clearance rate” of lower court cases in Bengal stood at 62% in 2025. This March the monthly rate was just 42%. According to the district judiciary’s “Virtual Justice Clock”, 90,685 cases were registered across the state in March, of which 38,527 were disposed of.Kolkata’s March clearance rate was even lower, at 39%. Of the 42,687 cases registered in the city’s lower courts, 16,717 were disposed of. At 19%, West Burdwan had the lowest rate.20 February, a Supreme Court The bench headed by CJI Surya Kant decided to assign judicial officers an “extraordinary” task – to scan the documents of nearly 60 lakh persons during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and decide whether their voting rights can be restored.The bench ordered “an interim measure for interim relief or transfer of matters of an urgent nature to an alternate court for a week or 10 days, within which the entire process is to be completed”.However, the trial has been going on for more than a month. Judicial officials now face the April 6 and 9 deadlines for the two phases of assembly elections scheduled for April 23 and 29.Special public prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee said the involvement of so many judicial officers on SIR duty was hampering hearings in rape, murder and POCSO cases as well as bail applications. “One fast-track court judge is now assigned four to five courts, whose judges are on SIR duty. As a result, it has become difficult to get dates for cases. Backlog of cases is increasing as it is impossible to handle so much work,” he said.
