A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which sought to fill vacancies of judicial officers in the district court campus was filed in the Madurai bench of Madras high court.

In the PIL, S Muthukumar observed that there are nearly 25 courts within the district court campus including the principal district and sessions court, additional district and sessions courts, labour court, family court and fast track courts. But it is a cause for concern as most of the courts lie vacant, he said. The reason attributed by the judiciary was that there existed insufficient judicial officers. This culminated in heavy pendency of cases and delay in disposal.

He claimed that the present situation affected not only the legal fraternity, but also the public at large. Since many judges had been transferred on promotion and due to many other reasons, the number ofare literally few judges in the district court of Madurai had been affected adversely. This was posing a problem for litigants as well as advocates, especially in disposing off since the last many months. As many of the cases that were in their final stage, the litigants, along with their advocates are finding it very hard. Due to non-availability of the judges, cases were piling up in different courts, Muthukumar said.

Moreover, the police too, sensing the delay, sometimes called the litigants to the police station and tried to solve the case through an out of court settlement, which was not always in the best interest of the litigants.

The state government should see to it that requisite number of judicial officers are posted immediately and stop the hardships being faced by the litigants, the petitioner added.