Africa-Press – Seychelles. According to the latest figures received from the Judiciary, 2440 cases were registered last year in the various courts.
870 legal aids were registered in 2021 compared to 685 in 2020.
In the Supreme Court: 115 cases were registered in regards to criminal offences; in the Magistrates Court at Ile du Port, 648 cases were registered under criminal offence and 1030 cases registered under traffic offence.
At the Magistrates Court Anse Royale, 385 cases were registered under criminal offence and 155 under traffic offence. At the Magistrates Court Praslin, 58 cases were registered under criminal offence and 32 cases registered under traffic offence.
The Magistrates Court La Digue registered 17 criminal offences.
In 2021 there was an increase in traffic offences – 1217 compared to 1100 in 2020.
In its annual report, the Judiciary of Seychelles gives a detailed report on all the cases. Court performance is measured by considering two aspects. The first is the overall case disposal, and the second is the percentage that older cases (backlog) forms part of the total cases. The goal is to reach a plateau where the backlog is a nominal percentage of the total cases, and the number of completed cases is largely on par with the number of cases filed. The accompanying statistics show that the Courts are continuing to make progress in the reduction of backlog cases despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which greatly affected the case clearance last year.
The Courts experienced a decrease in the case clearance in 2020 and a decrease in the number of cases filed. The overall clearance rate dropped from 102% in 2020 to 78.6% in 2021. The statistics are up to September 30, 2021, and it is likely that these will improve by the end of the year. Overall, case disposal has been affected by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, since the Courts had to shut down for some time.
All things considered the 78.6% disposal rate is commendable, and the goal for the coming year is to continue with the reduction of the backlog in the system in order to achieve over 100% of the disposal rate.
For More News And Analysis About Seychelles Follow Africa-Press
