Thimphu courts receives highest cases

Thimphu Dzongkhag Court in 2018 received the highest number of cases, according to the Annual Judiciary report released on Friday. The judiciary received 8,577 in total in 2018.

The courts received 2,800 2018 out of which 814 cases were carried forward from 2017. Out of which 2,127 cases have been decided. This was followed by Wangduephodrang Dzongkhag Court and Paro Dzongkhag Court with 586 and 554 registered cases.

According to Drangpoen Tshering Dorji of Supreme Court, Thimphu has highest registered number of cases because of its population. Thimphu has the highest population with about 98, 676 people.

Wangdue phodrang Dzongkhag Court had total of 668 cases registered, out of which 586 were cases registered in 2018 and 82 cases carried forward from 2017. The court settled 507 cases.

Paro Dzongkhag Court had 817 cases in total, where 554 were cases registered in 2018 and 263 carried forward from 2017. The court decided 476 cases.

Among the dungkhag court, Phuentsholing Dungkhag Court had the highest number of registered cases with 628 cases, followed by Gelephu and Nganglam with 372 and 136 cases respectively. Phuentsholing court decided 680 cases, while Gelephu and Nganglam decided 364 and 135 cases respectively.

Out of the 7,310 civil cases registered in 2018, 3,218 are related to monetary. There were 1,232 criminal cases registered out of which assault and battery cases were cases the highest with 366.

According to the report, marriage and divorce cases have decreased by 14 percent in 2018 compared to 2017. The drugs related cases have dropped down by 30 percent in 2018 in comparison to 2017.

475 cases were appealed to the High Court from the Dzongkhag Court and 171 cases were carried forward from 2017. The High Court decided 332 cases. 102 cases were appealed from Benches of High Court to the Larger Bench and 3 cases were carried forward from 2017, out of which 47 cases were decided. 38 cases were appealed to the Supreme Court from the Larger Bench of the High Court. 24 cases were carried forward from 2017, out of which 23 cases were adjudicated by Supreme Court. A total of 8542 cases were decided by the courts in 2018.

There are 2402 pending cases in the courts where 202 cases are pending beyond one year due to unavoidable circumstances.

During the release of Annual Report of Judiciary of Bhutan, Drangpoen Tshering Dorji said, “Waiting for forensic reports, signature or thumb impression verification from experts outside the country, complexities of cases, absconding of respondent, more involvement of witness and lengthy documents were some of the reasons for the delay.”

Drangpoen Tshering Dorji also highlighted on the human resources shortage and inconvenience of being 95 percent of employees under Royal Civil Service Commission.

About Nu.4 bn revenue were generated from compensation cases.

 

By Sangay Rabten