So, when a night court heard their case and convinced the two to get together again, they returned home, vowing to start life afresh. The Bochana family story isn’t an exception. In just 45 days of its inception, night courts in Gujarat—the first in the country—have brought back smiles on the faces of nearly 16,000 litigants till now.

For Sanjay (name changed), a school teacher in Ahmedabad, it was a nine-year wait that came to an end recently when a night court heard his case—an accident that had left a cyclist with a fractured leg in August 1997. A Rs. 1,300 penalty and an order to sit through the night court got Sanjay out of his agony. “I admitted to having caused the accident, I was sentenced and the matter is over now,” said Sanjay.

“Night courts have come as a blessing for numerous litigants awaiting justice for years,” says Gujarat law minister Ashok Bhatt. Bhatt said, “Even for a petty offence, people had to stay away from their work to attend court. The aim of the move was to ensure speedy disposal of petty offences. If these are taken up by the night courts, the routine courts would have more time to handle the serious cases. The number of night courts has grown to 42 from 17 now,” said Bhatt.

“The laws have been framed under the Evening Court Rules, 2006. Civil cases, where the claim is up to Rs. 1 lakh, miscellaneous civil appeals and applications, claims petition and applications under the Motor Vehicles Act, criminal cases punishable with imprisonment which may be extended up to three years and a fine, criminal revision applications, cases under the Industrial Disputes Act and the Bombay Industrial Relations Act can be tried in these courts,” Bhatt said.

“The evening courts begin from 6.15 pm and run for two hours on all working days. All judicial officers and other staff working in these courts will get 25 per cent of their basic pay, as honorarium,” he adds.

On November 14, 2006, 17 evening courts in Ahmedabad (rural), five in the metropolitan magistrate’s court and five courts in Rajkot district started functioning in the first phase. The success has led the Gujarat government planning more night courts in the state.

“The next courts would be in Bhavnagar, Surat, Mehsana and Jamnagar districts. With a number of cases high in Surat and Bhavnagar, there could be four night courts in Surat and two in Bhavnagar. Proposal of night courts in Vadodara too has been taken up,” says Bhatt.

The registrar says night courts would also be started on an experimental basis at the taluka level. The government has already approved night courts in talukas like Dabhoi, Sankheda and Savli in Vadodara district and Borsad in Anand.

“Judges in the night courts are relatively free and hence have more time to take up petty offences. A routine court usually has not less than 100 judicial matters on board each day,” says judge of Ahmedabad rural court, A S Budhwani.