Interrogating New Ways for Off Loading of Pending Cases in Courts an Issue of Judicial Reforms

Abstract

Indian courts are beset with tremendous backlog of cases. As per the data provided by the National Judicial Data Grid, total pending cases in India is 3,68, 67,207 as on 23rd March, 2020, the breakup of which is-in the Subordinate courts it is 3,21,67,544, in all High Courts it is 46, 41,676 (Writ Petitions 13,76,831, Criminal cases 13,33,469 and Civil Cases 19,31,376) and in the Hon ble Supreme Court it is 57,987 and there is a backlog of about 43 lacks petitions in our High Courts out of which more than eight lacks petitions are of about 10 years. There are 25 High Courts in India. The number of total judges sanctioned in these High Courts is 1079 of which 771 judges are permanent and remaining 308 sanctioned for additional judges. As of May 1, 2020, 381 of the seats (about 35%) are vacant. There are 59,867 cases pending in the Supreme Court, and 44.75 lacks cases in various high courts. At the district and subordinate court levels, the number of pending cases as of November 2019 stand at a shocking 3.14 crore.Although there are several factors for delay, but some of the main reasons is shortage of number of posts, inadequate infrastructure, non-filling up of the vacancies, and non-appearance of the witnesses. Apart from the above stay orders from the higher courts which itself counts to about 40%-50% of the total pendency. There are around 672 district courts, 25 Hon ble High Courts with the Hon ble Supreme Court at the apex in India.The Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India constituted National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms (herein after referred to as the Mission ) in 2011, with a view to reduce pendency from 15 years to three years within the time frame of five years spanning from 2011 to 2016 . newline