LAHORE Scarcity of additional district and sessions judges as well as their alleged slow working during duty hours is causing constant delay in delivery of justice. The sanctioned strength is 35 but only 24 to 27 judges are currently working in Lahore district, TheNation has learnt. As per details, delay in cases is causing due to different reasons including unsatisfactory number of judges, judges slow working style, slow pace of prosecution, lethargic attitude of police for not producing records in time and lack of coordination between the bench and the bar regarding timely disposal of cases. Sources privy to the matter revealed that from January 2010 to Nov 2010 about new 72,400 cases were filed in the courts of the district and sessions judges whose number range from 27 to 30 against the announced strength of 35 judges for Lahore. Up till January 2011, the delay in cases was 16,059 cases. Commenting on the matter, different lawyers opined that judges satisfactory performance as well as their complete strength for Lahore district could ensure relief and earliest justice to the litigants. A Lahore High Court (LHC) lawyer Muhammad Iqbal Mughal opined that national judicial policy could not bear fruits in case of slow pace of judges working as well as their unsatisfactory strength against the increasing filing of cases in Lahore district. He said that police should also be taken to task for not presenting record of cases in time and judges should accelerate their pace of working during their duty hours, he opined. Some others lawyers also said that judges performance and pace of working in monthly meeting, which is being held and supervised by LHC chief justice should surely ensure reduction in the ongoing delay in cases for Lahore district as well as for other districts. When contacted Lahore Bar Association (LBA) Secretary Qasim Hassan Bhuttar, he said that the LBAs delegation had met with former LHC chief justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif and informed him about the issues. He said that former CJ had asked the LBAs delegation that soon the issue of delay in cases through new recruitment of judges would be resolved but so far no satisfactory recruitment of additional district and sessions judges had been made, he added. He said that police should present challans (173-CRPC report) within 14 days as per law but it was delaying such reports from six to eight months due to which cases are delaying.