By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 26, 2015 : Odisha government has announced to open 50 new courts to expedite the court proceeding and clear the backlog of huge number of pending cases.

Announcing this, Law Minister Arun Sahu said, the move will go a long way to bring a turnaround in the trial duration and decrease the backlog at courts.

At present there are about 13 lakh cases including 7 lakh criminal cases pending in different courts of the state by July 2014.

The numbers would far exceed 15 lakh, if the cases pertaining to land disputes are added to the tally. While around 2 lakh cases are pending in the Orissa High Court, 10 lakh in are pending in lower courts and 1 lakh in tribunals.

Besides, out of the 12,84 lakh cases, more than 5 lakh cases are over five years old.

The number of cases that have been disposed off during the last five years have also increased. While 2.5 lakh cases were disposed in 2010, the numbers shot up to 3,28,616 and 4,16,365 in 2013 and 2014 respectively.