Pokhara, April 3

The rate of case settlement at the Appellate Court in Pokhara has been affected given the increasing tendency to postpone cases of late.

Thought there is a provision that allows postponement of cases only two times without affecting the court’s proceedings, there are occasions when cases have been deferred up to 17 times. There are even times when the court had to rule against such postponement, which, according to legal eagles, is a common strategy to thwart what could be a verdict in the plaintiff’s favour.

Court registrar Khadga Bahadur Shrestha conceded the frequent deferral of cases and rued its effect on the overall proceedings and action plan of the court.

“The cases are supposed to have been settled within one year from the time they are lodged, but the provision of postponement of cases has been a major hurdle for the same,” he said.

According to Shrestha, only 618 cases out of the total 1,631 cases were settled in the last fiscal. “Among the cases, 322 were supposed to be settled the year before, but couldn’t be done due to postponement,” he said, adding, “Due to the tendency t postpone cases our target has been affected. The settlement of cases in the last fiscal was 19 per cent less than our target.”