Supreme Court and High Court Pending Cases

High Court-wise details of pending cases for less than five years, for five to ten years and for more than ten years as on 05.02.2021 is given in a statement at Annexure.

[post_ads]

(c): Disposal of pending cases in courts is within the domain of the judiciary. Pendency of cases in courts depends on several factors which, inter-alia includes availability of adequate number of judges, supporting court staff and physical infrastructure, complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, cooperation of stake holders viz. bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures. No time frame has been prescribed for disposal of various kinds of cases by the respective courts. Government has no role in disposal of cases in courts. However, Central Government is fully committed to speedy disposal of cases in accordance with Article 21 of the Constitution and reducing pendency. The Government has taken several initiatives to provide an ecosystem for faster disposal of cases by the judiciary. The National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms established by the Government has adopted a coordinated approach for phased liquidation of arrears and pendency in judicial administration through various strategic initiatives, including improving infrastructure for courts, leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for better justice delivery, and filling up of vacant positions of Judges in High Courts and Supreme Court. After announcement of nation- wide lockdown from 25th March, 2020, directions have been issued from time to time by the respective High Courts to the Subordinate Courts under their administrative jurisdiction for hearing of urgent civil and criminal matters in virtual or physical mode depending on local conditions. Most High Courts have further advised district and subordinate courts that where there is no shut down/lockdown, they may, as far as possible, resume normal functioning by virtual/physical mode and take up all kind of cases, including those pertaining to under-trial prisoners, trial of civil cases, matrimonial disputes, child custody matters, recording of evidence and other old matters. Wherever physical hearing has been permitted in district and subordinate courts, they have been advised to strictly adhere to Covid protocols and social distancing norms and take all precautions including consent of the parties. A new Software Patch and Court User Manual has been recently developed for COVID- 19 Management. This tool has been developed to help in smart scheduling all cases to effectively manage overcrowding in courts. As regards the Supreme Court, an overarching order has been issued by the Supreme Court on 06.04.2020 giving legal sanctity and validity to video conference hearing.

Video conferencing emerged as the mainstay of the Courts during the Covid lockdown period as physical hearings and normal court proceedings in the congregational mode were not possible. Since Covid lockdown started, the District courts heard 45,73,159 cases while the High Court heard 20,60,318 cases (totalling to 66.33 lakh) till 31.12.2020 using video conferencing only. The Supreme Court had 52,353 hearings since the lockdown period upto 31.01.2021.

(i) Improving infrastructure for Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts: As on date, Rs. 8,288.81 crores have been released since the inception of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary in 1993-94. The number of court halls has increased from 15,818 as on 30.06.2014 to 20,248 as on 05.02.2021 and number of residential units has increased from 10,211 as on 30.06.2014 to 17,942 as on 05.02.2021 under this scheme. In addition, 2,808 court halls and 1,843 residential units are under construction.

(ii) Leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for improved justice delivery: Government has been implementing the e-Courts Mission Mode Project throughout the country for Information and Communication Technology enablement of district and subordinate courts. Number of computerized District & Subordinate courts has increased from 13,672 (in 2014) to 18,735 as on 28.01.2021, registering an increase of 5,063. New and user-friendly version of  Case Information Software has been developed and deployed at all the computerized District and Subordinate Courts. All stakeholders including Judicial Officers can access information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of computerized District & Subordinate Courts and High Courts on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG). As on 01.01.2021, litigants can access case status of over 17.90 crore cases and 13.36 crore order/judgements pertaining to these courts. eCourts services such as details of case registration, cause list, case status, daily orders & final judgments are available to litigants and advocates through eCourts web portal, Judicial Service Centres (JSC) in all computerized courts, eCourts Mobile App, email service, SMS push & pull services. Video Conferencing facility has been enabled between 3240 court complexes and 1272 corresponding jails. With a view to handle the COVID- 19 challenges better and to make the transition to virtual hearings smoother, funds have been provided for setting up 235 e- SewaKendras at court complexes to facilitate lawyers and litigants needing assistance ranging from case status, getting judgements/orders, court/case related information and efiling facilities. Rs. 5.01 crores has been allocated for providing equipment in Video Conferencing cabins in various court complexes to facilitate virtual hearings. Rs. 12.12 crores has been allocated for 1732 Help desk counters for efiling in various court complexes.

 

Nine Virtual Courts have been set up at Delhi (2 courts), Faridabad (Haryana), Pune & Nagpur (Maharashtra) Kochi (Kerala), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Guwahati (Assam) and Bengaluru (Karnataka) to try traffic offences. As on 20.01.2021, these courts have handled 41,98,095 cases and realised Rs.139.25cr in fines.

(iii) Filling up of vacant positions in Supreme Court, High Courts and District and Subordinate Courts: From 01.05.2014 to 05.02.2021, 35 Judges were appointed in Supreme Court. 570 new Judges were appointed and 520 Additional Judges were made permanent in the High Courts. Sanctioned strength of Judges of High Courts has been increased from 906 in May, 2014 to 1080 currently. Sanctioned and working strength of Judicial Officers in District and Subordinate Courts has increased as follows:

As on	Sanctioned Strength	Working Strength
31.12.2013	19,518	15,115
05.02.2021	24,282	19,310

Filling up of vacancies in Subordinate judiciary falls within the domain of the State Governments and High Courts concerned.

 

(iv) Reduction in Pendency through / follow up by Arrears Committees: In pursuance of resolution passed in Chief Justices’ Conference held in April, 2015, Arrears Committees have been set up in High Courts to clear cases pending for more than five years. Arrears Committees have been set up under District Judges  too.  Arrears Committee has been constituted in the Supreme Court to formulate steps to reduce pendency of cases in High Courts and District Courts. Further, communications have been addressed by Minister of Law & Justice to Chief Justices of High Courts and to Chief Ministers on 20.06.2014 and 14.08.2018 drawing their attention to cases pending for more than five years and to take up pendency reduction campaign.

(v) Emphasis on Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR): Commercial Courts Act, 2015 (as amended on 20th August, 2018) stipulates mandatory pre-institution mediation and settlement of commercial disputes. Amendment to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been made by the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act 2019 inter alia expediting the speedy resolution of disputes by prescribing timelines.

(vi) Initiatives to Fast Track Special Type of Cases: The Fourteenth Finance Commission endorsed the proposal of the Government to strengthen the judicial system in States which included, inter-alia, establishing Fast Track Courts for cases of heinous crimes; cases involving senior citizens, women, children etc., and urged the State Governments to use the additional fiscal space provided in the form of enhanced tax devolution form 32% to 42% to meet such requirements. As on 18.01.2021, Fast Track Courts are functional for heinous crimes, crimes against women and children, family and matrimonial disputes, etc. To fast track criminal cases involving elected MPs / MLAs, ten (10) Special Courts are functional in nine (9) States/UTs (1 each in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and 2 in NCT of Delhi) and proportionate funds have been released to these States by the Government. Further, Government has approved a scheme for setting up 1023 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) across the country for expeditious disposal of pending cases of Rape under IPC and crimes under POCSO Act. As on date, 28 States/UTs have joined the scheme for setting up of 823 FTSCs including ‘exclusive POCSO Courts’. Rs.140 crore was released in the financial year 2019-20 and Rs. 89.89 crore has been released during the financial year 2020-21 for the scheme. Presently 609 FTSCs are functional including 331 exclusive POCSO Courts.

[post_ads_2]

(vii) In addition, to reduce pendency and unclogging of the courts the Government has recently amended various laws like the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Commercial Courts (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Specific Relief (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2018.

Sl. No	Name of High Courts	Less than 5 years		More than 5years & Less than 10 years (5-10 years)		More than 10 years		Total
		Civil	Criminal	Civil	Criminal	Civil	Criminal
1	Allahabad High Court	142303	146823	104057	72727	167062	140355	773327
2	Bombay High Court	235588	57185	96203	15453	127420	15396	547245
3	Calcutta High Court	67812	17035	45768	11395	114327	13918	270255
4	Gauhati High Court	35452	7674	5905	1954	868	122	51975
5	High Court for State of Telangana	109211	20793	57707	9199	36175	3767	236852
6	High Court of Andhra Pradesh	92263	18937	53167	7947	32617	3984	208915
7	High Court of Chhattisgarh	37014	18769	9561	6354	1366	3387	76451
8	High Court of Delhi	43120	15040	11245	5303	11289	5198	91195
9	High Court of Gujarat	69264	31049	19863	8680	9888	7611	146355
10	High Court of Himachal Pradesh	55610	6920	8101	2104	2085	326	75146
11	High Court for Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh	26564	5418	21071	2131	7883	392	63459
12	High Court of Jharkhand	26726	24850	9072	8454	5116	12359	86577
13	High Court of Karnataka	144438	28626	61099	8236	40535	5119	288053
14	High Court of Kerala	111523	23556	45877	10960	14183	10350	216449
15	High Court of Madhya Pradesh	107201	66721	65960	39154	52978	36004	368018
16	High Court of Manipur	3421	384	283	16	365	37	4506
17	High Court of Meghalaya	1216	122	106	4	0	0	1448
18	High Court of Punjab & Haryana	232836	204119	66398	41793	77638	25432	648216
19	High Court of Rajasthan	268788	86505	68452	19927	55178	31045	529895
20	High Court of Sikkim	201	38	4	1	1	0	245
21	High Court of Tripura	2014	301	29	2	1	0	2347
22	High Court of Uttarakhand	18081	11783	3867	2748	1470	727	38676
23	Madras High Court	323942	53251	77192	3024	118837	5572	581818
24	Orissa High Court	62229	31016	35053	10499	21713	11195	171705
25	Patna High Court	74824	61995	17496	9964	9094	17459	190832
Total		2291641	938910	883536	298029	908089	349755	5669960