New Delhi, Nov 21 (PTI) In view of a huge backlog of cases registered under the Negotiable Instruments Act, Lt Governor VK Saxena has approved the hiring of five judicial officers and 35 other clerical and support staff in five special courts in the city, an official said on Monday.

The Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act, 1881, covers cases related to financial transactions through different modes including bank cheques, promissary notes, hundis among others.

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The appointments of staff including readers, stenographers, ahlmads, assistant ahlmads and peons at the courts dealing with NI Act cases will be done on a pilot basis for one year, said the official at the LG office.

"The move aims at expediting the disposal of court cases under the NI Act and reduce the huge pendency of cases in these courts, mainly due to procedural and logistical delays owing to shortage of staff," he said.

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The move comes in the wake of a Supreme Court order on May 19 this year, in a suo moto writ related to 'Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.”

In pursuance of the Supreme Court order, the Law department of Delhi government had sought the approval of the Lieutenant Governor for engaging the court staff.

The State Court Management Committee of the Delhi High Court has recommended that only 2500 oldest pending cases will be assigned by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) at every special court (NI Act) at the time of commencement of the pilot project, the official said.

It was observed that prolonged pendency of cases under NI Act, mostly dealing with petty financial disputes including cases of cheque bounce, often rendered litigation irrelevant for the litigants due to inordinate delays and caused harassment to the parties involved, the official said.

In recent times, the LG has taken concrete steps to equip the judiciary with ample staff and expeditiously reduce the pendency of cases.In a first such move, the LG has authorized Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB), to make recruitment of Group ‘B' & ‘C' non-judicial subordinate staffs for the Delhi High Court, he added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)