Toying with idea of evening courts in state

BANGALORE: The courts, especially at the lower level, may work till late evening in order to dispose of pending cases, if Law Minister S Suresh Kumar can persuade the Bar Council. “I will soon discuss it with office-bearers of the Bar Council and others related to the issue. In fact, I had mooted this idea some time ago. I need to take the subject to its logical end,” Suresh Kumar told Express here on Tuesday. A practising lawyer himself, till he became minister in 2008, Suresh Kumar, however, admitted that advocates may express difficulty in managing time and personnel, besides the documentation and study involved in preparing for the next day’s cases, if they attend evening courts. “I do not disagree with them. Definitely there is a valid point in what they may say. But I don’t think it is an insurmountable problem. I have certain ideas to overcome these obstacles of logistics, which I will moot when I sit for discussions with the office-bearers of the Bar Council. Let’s see,” the Law Minister said. He, however, did not elaborate on the ideas he proposes to discuss with the Bar Council. According to him, there is a need to improve the quantum and quality of infrastructure, besides the personnel, in order to meet the growing number of cases. “But along with improving infrastructure — which is a slow process due to inadequacies inherent in the overall system — we, however, need to speed up the justice delivery system with the available human resources and infrastructure, which is not impossible. I am of the view that evening courts should be an option to be considered,” the Law Minister explained.