What is of interest is that people have been taking case o these ‘courts’;it could mean that they have been getting some results from approaching these ‘courts’ rather than Courts, which is a reflection on the Courts.
Cases have been pending for tens of years and people are frustrated.
It surprises me to know what prevents the government from appointing more Judges and more Courts spread over the country.
Point of note is that these bogus courts could not have been functioning with out the connivance of local authorities and politicians.
In fact Politicians may be running it.
There’s fake certificates, fake currency, fake police stations and fake encounters but this hoax leaves them all behind. Coimbatore has at least half a dozen fake courts, that go by the name of ‘arbitral tribunal’, ‘all-India & overseas arbitration committee’ or ‘alternative disputes redressal forum-cum-arbitration tribunal’. And their ‘judgments’ issued by a ‘judge’ sitting beneath a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi are meticulously followed even by the police…
The Coimbatore Bar Association has lodged a complaint with the Madras high court and the Coimbatore police. A PIL has also been filed by Coimbatore-based advocate D Kalaiarasu to bring the matter to the HC’s notice. The petition is expected to come up for hearing this week. “No action has been taken on these fake courts,” said association president P Nandakumar. “How can these committees with no legal sanction decide upon properties and rights of a third party who has not approached them at all?”
About 20 ‘judgments’ of these so-called tribunals, copies of which are available with The Times of India, reveal that they have been handling civil cases involving lakhs of rupees for at least about four years. They have been issuing directions on non-judicial stamp paper (used for registration of properties, trusts, bonds, etc) to individuals as well as local bodies to implement the orders.
Advocates Manikandan Vathan Chettiar and Vijayalakshmi worked for months in Coimbatore to unearth the fraud. These fake tribunals have been thriving for some years now, they said. “This is not possible without the connivance of police and subordinate judicial authorities. We are about to initiate public interest litigation proceedings against the whole set-up, including the nexus between police officers and non-practising advocates who had found this ingenious method to cheat the people,” Chettiar told TOI.
He said the hearings in these tribunals were held at night. Apart from laser surveillance cameras, both inside and outside the ‘tribunal premises’, these so-called night courts were designed to resemble a regular court with red and black interiors, the National Emblem and Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait.
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