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124 years to clear all the pending cases in the Indian courts

by Sanjay Jha | April 20, 2008 at 07:26 pm

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Backlog of cases has become a big problem for the Indian judiciary — from the Supreme Court to the subordinate courts. At the current speed, the lower courts, may take 124 years for clearing 2,50,000 cases.

In the last seven years, the disposal rate has increased by 48 per cent in the high courts and by 28 per cent in the subordinate courts, but the pendency has increased. Thus, it is the system (and not the judges) which is at fault. Unless the disposal rate improves, the backlog will keep mounting. To make rule of law a reality, the arrears will have to be reduced.

Hopefully this move will help in faster judicial delivery

The Chief Justices’ Conference has recommended increasing in the working hours of high courts to clear the huge backlog of cases.

At the end of the two-day conference, Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan said the working hours could be increased by 30 minutes each day or one more working day be added to the calendar. Most high courts work for 210 days in a year and it has been recommended to increase it up to 215 or 220, he said. “Some... high courts are already working up to 220 days,” he added.

Giving details of the decisions taken at the meet, the chief justice told a gathering of lawyers the conference has also recommended setting up 463 family courts, one in each district, to deal with matrimonial cases. The conference has recommended setting up one CBI court in each state. There were about 13,000 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act pending in various high courts out of which 6,100 were CBI cases, he added.