Supreme Court forms committee headed by retired Justice RC Chavan to devise steps to expedite disposal of cases under Section 138 NI Act

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday constituted a committee headed by former Bombay High Court judge, Justice RC Chavan to devise steps for expeditious disposal of cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. .The other members of the committee as pet the order are: .- Officer from the Department of Financial Services not below the rank of Additional Secretary. - Officer from Department of Justice.- Officer from the Department of Corporate affairs- Officer from the Department of expenditure- Member from the Ministry of Home Affairs- Member nominated by Governor RBI- Member nominated by IBA chairman- Member of NALSA appointed as Secretary of the committee .The Court granted Solicitor General Tushar Mehta time till March 12 to suggest names for the above posts..The committee will have to submits its report to the Court within 3 months. .The order was passed by a Bench of Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde and Justices L Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna and Ravindra Bhat. .The Court was hearing a suo motu case initiated by it to examine measures to ensure expeditious trial of cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act..The Court had found that over 35 lakh cheque bounce cases were pending in various courts across the country. It had appointed Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra and advocate K Parameshwar as amici curiae in the suo motu case. It had sought responses from the Centre and other stakeholders, including the Reserve Bank of India..The Centre had made some suggestions pursuant to the same but the Court had, during the hearing on March 2, said that the suggestions made by the Centre were not acceptable. Instead the Court had proposed setting up additional courts to quickly hear and decide such cases under the Negotiable Instruments Act.ASG Vikramajit Banerjee had then submitted that the matter requires wide ranging discussion with various stakeholders and officers and secretaries of various Ministries who will be able to suggest a solution to the problems.The top court had found this suggestion of ASG acceptable and had, therefore, directed the government to form a committee to deliberate on measures to reduce pendency..According to the Court's order of March 2, “a recent study of the pending cases, reflects pendency of more than 35 lakh, which constitutes more than 15 percent of the total criminal cases pending in district courts. Further, there is a steady increase in the docket burden.”