CHENNAI: The jurisdiction of sub courts should be defined to prevent some of them from being burdened with a huge number of cases while had very few, said members who spoke on a special calling attention motion in the Assembly on Monday.

The motion, moved by D. Sudarsanam and C. Gnanasekharan (Congress) and G.K. Mani and T. Velmurugan (Pattali Makkal Katchi), wanted the Government to take steps to end the impasse arising out of the decision to shift the cases in the Poonamallee court to Kancheepuram. Mr. Sudarsanam pointed out that the advocates who practised there were agitating for more than 60 days and that the Government had not taken note of it. The Government must intervene and ensure that the Poonamallee court functioned as in the past.

PWD Minister Durai Murugan, who is also in charge of the Law Department, said the Government did not have any role in the issue. The Madras High Court decided to shift the cases consequent on the bifurcation of the district.

Mr. Velmurugan said the problem of jurisdiction of sub courts was there throughout the State. The Government should fix the jurisdiction. This could either be done on the basis of the revenue district, where the court was located, or the distance from the sub court. No room should be given for discretion, he said.

Citing an example to illustrate the dimension of the problem, K. Arumugham (PMK) said outside the Assembly that a person residing in Maangadu had to approach the Tambaram court, consequent on the bifurcation of Chengalpattu district. Though Poonamallee was very near, he or she could not approach court there. Rationalisation of jurisdiction was a way out.

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