Patna High Court Acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari on Sunday bemoaned the road quality in Bihar, at a time when the state government has been boasting of shortening travel times.

The top judge was in Munger to inaugurate the new dispute redressal building on the civil court campus. He had travelled by road.

"As my wife and I travelled to Munger from Patna, she raised a number of questions about the deplorable condition of the roads," Acting Chief Justice Ansari said at a select gathering of judges, lawyers and residents at the Town Hall. "When I enquired about it from my driver, he told me we were passing through the bypass road as the town area was congested."

He didn't mention the road or town he was referring to.

To travel to Munger from Patna - an approximate distance of 200km - one needs to take National Highway (NH) 30 from Patna to reach Bakhtiyarpur and from there, take NH 31 to reach Munger via Mokama and Barhaiya.

The top judge's displeasure was not limited to the poor condition of the road. He used the inauguration event to express displeasure with the pace of case disposal, and his understanding of the reason behind it.

"In India, new laws are enacted regularly but there is no system to assess the impact of the new laws," he said. "Whereas in western countries, there is a system in place to assess the success of the new laws made."

The Acting Chief Justice cited the example of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act. "This act has been put in force but neither new courts have been set up nor have additional judges been appointed for conducting trials," he said.

"So, the implementation of the new act has put a burden on the existing infrastructure of judiciary. Under these circumstances, is speedy trial or quick disposal of cases possible?"