Guwahati, Apr 4 (PTI) Over 4.5 lakh cases are pending in courts across Assam and the government is taking various steps to dispose the cases, state Law Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass said in the Assembly on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a query by BJP MLA Chakradhar Gogoi, Dass said there are 4,58,059 cases pending in various courts of Assam.

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The highest number of 1,06,850 cases are pending in Kamrup Metropolitan district, followed by 31,101 in Nagaon and 30,385 in Dhubri, the minister said.

To clear the backlog, the state government has taken a decision to withdraw around one lakh criminal cases, where punishment is up to three years or fine or both, except those registered for heinous and serious offences.

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The decision will reduce the number of cases pending in courts, which in turn will facilitate the courts to devote time for serious offences and other cases, Dass said.

"Moreover, ASLSA (Assam State Legal Services Authority) has emphasised on maximising the number of disposal in both pre-litigation and pending cases through lokadalats under the aegis of Patron-in-Chief (Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court) and Executive Chairman of ASLSA," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)