ORDER

1. Notices on this petition shall be issued to all the High Courts returnable by 26.2.1999. The High Courts shall be required to furnish a list of all pending Criminal/district wise in different courts specifying the offences to which they relate and if they are pending for more than five years as on 3I.12.98, the reason for not being disposed of speedily. The High Courts will also indicate whether the existing courts are sufficient for speedy disposal of the pending cases including trials and, if not, what are the requirements for the additional courts.

2. The affidavit filed by State of U.P. is highly unsatisfactory and does not give details as were required by this Court. Apart from the fact that the details of pending cases beyond five years have not been given, they have also not specified the offences for which the cases mentioned in the schedule appended to the affidavit are pending. We, therefore, direct the State of U.P. to file a better affidavit by 26.2.1999.

3. On a perusal of the various charts filed by the State of Punjab in response to the orders passed by this Court from time to time, it has come to our notice that in the State of Punjab, there are 140 under t