More than four crore cases are pending before the district courts across India and of these at least 1.04 crore are pending for more than five years, official data analysed by CNN-News18 shows.
Further, more than six lakh cases in the lower courts are pending for over 20 years and at least one lakh cases are pending for more than 30 years now, data from National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) up to July 22 shows. At least 1.41 crore cases were filed in the past one year.
The data analysed also revealed that the lower courts across India have been working with a strength of 19,288, against the sanctioned 24,631. At least 5,343 posts are vacant in the District and Subordinate Courts across India.
Among the states, Uttar Pradesh is in the worst situation with highest vacancies. At least 1,126 posts – 21% of the total vacancies – are vacant in the state that is working with just 2,508 persons against the sanctioned strength of 3,634.
Earlier this month, Chief Justice N V Ramana said that not filling up of judicial vacancies and not improving the judicial infrastructure was the main reason behind pendency of cases in the country.
Also, Uttar Pradesh tops the chart in cases filed by senior citizens and women. Nearly 22% of the total cases filed by women in the lower courts across India were registered in Uttar Pradesh. At least 36.30 lakh cases were filed by women in India in lower courts and Uttar Pradesh accounted for 7.93 lakh cases. Also, 26.55 lakh cases were registered in Indian lower courts by the senior citizens and more than 17 percent of these were from Uttar Pradesh.
When divided on the type of cases, of the 4.22 crore, at least 3.64 crore are original, while just 15.96 lakh are Execution Petitions.
In terms of stage-wise, 1.72 crore cases are at appearance or service stage, while 1.40 crore are at the evidence or argument or judgment stage.
Among the most common reasons for delay in cases were non availability of counsel, accused absconding, awaiting documents, and difficulty in securing witness.
The data also shows that more than 18.58 lakh cases were disposed of during the last month while over 19.16 lakh cases were instituted during the same period.
During the ongoing Monsoon Session, the Ministry of Law and Justice told the Rajya Sabha that disposal of pending cases in courts is within the domain of the judiciary.
“No time frame has been prescribed for disposal of various kinds of cases by the respective courts. Government has no direct role in disposal of cases in courts. Timely disposal of cases in courts depends on several factors which, inter-alia, include availability of adequate number of judges and judicial officers, supporting court staff and physical infrastructure, complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, co-operation of stake holders viz. bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures,” the Ministry said in a written statement.
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