Lok Sabha Question No. 600 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-07-19
Subject: Pending Cases
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Richard Hay, DARSHANA VIKRAM JARDOSH, RAYAPATI SAMBASIVA RAO, CHINTAMANI MALVIYA, RATTAN LAL KATARIA, C.S. PUTTARAJU, RAJESH PANDEY, RAVINDRA KUMAR PANDEY, NISHIKANT  DUBEY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LAW & JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 600.

TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 19 TH JULY, 2017.

## Pending Cases

## 600. PROF. RICHARD HAY:

SHRIMATI DARSHANA VIKRAM JARDOSH:

SHRI RAYAPATI SAMBASIVA RAO:

PROF. CHINTAMANI MALVIYA:

SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA:

SHRI C.S. PUTTA RAJU:

SHRI RAJESH PANDEY:

SHRI RAVINDRA KUMAR PANDEY:

SHRI NISHIKANT DUBEY

## Will the Minister of LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the civil and criminal cases pending at various levels in
- the judiciary, State and district-wise;
- (b)  the  steps  taken / being  taken  in consultation  with  the  State Governments to address the high pendency of cases;
- (c)  the  details  of  the  vacancies  of  judges  at  various  levels  in  the judiciary;
- (d) the steps being taken to fill up these vacancies;
- (e) whether there has been a decline in the number of pending cases in the  last  three  years  and  there  has  been  an  impact  of  digital revolution on courts; and
- (f) if so, the details thereof and the details of any other initiative under Nyaya  Mitra  scheme  taken  by  the  Government  to  provide  speedy justice to the citizens?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR LAW AND JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

(a) : Data on pendency of cases is maintained by the Supreme Court and the High Courts.  As per the information available on the website of the Supreme Court, 60,751 cases were pending in the Supreme Court as on 01.05.2017. As  per  the  information  furnished  by  High  Courts,  40.15  lakh  cases  were pending in various High Courts, and 2.74 crore cases were pending in various

District  and  Subordinate  Courts  as  on  31.12.2016.    The  details  of  the  High Court-wise and State / UT - wise pendency of civil and criminal cases as on 31.12.2016 are given in the Statement at Annexure - I and Annexure - II respectively.

(b) : The Government has adopted a co-ordinated approach to assist judiciary for  phased  liquidation  of  arrears  and  pendency  in  judicial  systems,  which, inter-alia, involves better    court  infrastructure  including  computerisation, increase  in  the  strength  of  subordinate  judiciary  and  initiating  policy  and legislative measures in the areas prone to excessive litigation and emphasis on human resource development.  In pursuance of resolution passed in the Chief  Justices'  Conference  held  in  April,  2015,  High  Courts  have  set  up Arrears Committees to clear the backlog of cases pending for more than five years.  Hon'ble Minister of Law and Justice vide his letters dated 10 th April, 2017 addressed  to  all  Hon'ble  Union  Ministers  and  all  Hon'ble  Chief  Ministers  to launch ' special  arrears  clearance  drives' to  reduce  Government Litigations.   In the  case  of  Imtiyaz  Ahmed versus State  of  Uttar  Pradesh  and  others,  the Supreme Court had asked the Law Commission of India to evolve a method for  scientific  assessment  of  the  number  of  additional  courts  to  clear  the backlog of cases.  In 245 th report (2014), the Law Commission has observed that filing of cases per capita varies substantially across geographic units as filings are associated with economic and social conditions of the population. As such the Law Commission did not consider the judge population ratio to be a scientific criterion for determining the adequacy of the judge strength in the country.    The  Law  Commission found that  in  the  absence of  complete  and scientific  approach  to  data  collection  across  various  High  Courts  in  the country, the 'Rate of Disposal' method to calculate the number of additional judges required to clear the backlog of cases as well as to ensure that new backlog  is  not  created,  is  more  pragmatic  and  useful.    In  May,  2014,  the Supreme Court asked the State Governments and the High Courts to file their response to the recommendations made by the Law Commission.  In August 2014,  the  Supreme  Court  asked  the  National  Court  Management  System Committee  (NCMS)  to  examine  the  recommendations  made  by  the  Law Commission  and  to  furnish  their  recommendations  in  this  regard.    NCMS submitted its report to the Supreme Court in March, 2016.  It has, inter-alia , observed that in the long term, the judge strength of the subordinate courts will have to be assessed by a scientific method to determine the total number of ' Judicial Hours '  required for disposing of the case load of each court.  In the interim,  the Committee has proposed a ' weighted '  disposal  approach disposal weighted by the nature and complexity of cases in local conditions. The matter is sub-judice before the Supreme Court, at present.  As per the direction  of  the  Hon'ble  Supreme  Court  in  its  Order  dated  02.01.2017,  the Department of Justice has forwarded a copy of interim report of the NCMS Committee to all State Governments and High Courts to enable them to take follow up action to determine the required Judges Strength of district judiciary based on the NCMS report.

(c): The sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court is 31 and 4 posts of judges are vacant as on 10.07.2017.  The sanctioned strength of judges in the High Courts is 1,079 in July, 2017.  401 posts of judges in the High Courts are vacant as on 10.07.2017 which includes 173 newly created posts.  The Appointment of Judges and Judicial Officers in the District and Subordinate Courts  falls  within  the  domain  of  the  High  Courts  and  State  Governments concerned.  The details of approved and working strength and vacancies of Judges  of  Supreme  Court  and  High  Courts  as  on  10.07.2017  is  given  at Annexure - III.

(d) : Filling up of the vacancies in the High Courts is a continuous process, as it  requires consultation  and approval from various Constitutional  Authorities. While  every  effort  is  made  to  fill  up  the  existing  vacancies  expeditiously, vacancies  do  keep  on  arising  on  account  of  retirement,  resignation  or elevation  of  Judges  and  increase  in  Judge  strength.    The  subject  matter relating to filling up of vacancies in the District and Subordinate Courts falls within the domain of the High Courts and the State Governments concerned. The Central Government has no role in appointment of Subordinate Judiciary.

(e)  &  (f):  Disposal  of  cases  is  within  the  domain  of  the  domain  of  judiciary. Increase  /  decrease  of  disposal  of  cases  and  Increase  /  decrease  of pendency of cases depend upon various factors such as nature and type of cases,  completion  of  investigation of  cases,  availability  of  Judges  /  Judicial

Officers, availability of judicial infrastructure, availability of accused / witness, computerisation  of  courts,  automation  of  court  procedures,  efficiency  of Judges  /  Judicial  Officers etc .    Despite  of  various  constraints,  pendency  of cases in the Supreme Court has declined from 62 thousand cases in the year 2014  to  60  thousand  cases  in  the  year  2017. Pendency  of  cases  in  High Courts has also declined from 41.53 lakh cases in the year 2014 to 40.15 lakh cases  in  the  year  2016.    Pendency  of  cases  in  District  and  Subordinate Courts has, however, increased  from  2.64 crore  cases  in  the  year  2014 to 2.74 crore cases in the year 2016 due to increased filing of cases.

There  has  been  positive  impact  of  eCourts  Mission  Mode project  on the  Courts.    National  Judicial  Data  Grid  (NJDG)  portal  created  for  public access  in  September,  2015,  contains information  of  7  crores  pending  and disposed cases, and more than 4 crores orders / judgments.  The number of transactions recorded for eCourts through eTaal portal raised from 2 crore in the year 2014 to 66 crore in the year 2017.  The eCourts transactions have thus emerged as one of the topmost accessed services of the Government. The services such as SMS and case disposal started in the year 2014, has recorded  more  than  8.59  crore  auto-generated  SMSs  sent  to  lawyers  and judges.  During the period, number of court orders accessed has increased from a mere 64 in the year 2014 to 3.56 crore in the year 2017.  There was no video  conferencing  facility  available  till  the  year  2014.    Video  conferencing facilities have now been operationalized between 493 courts and corresponding 342 prisons during the years 2015-2017.

The  Government  has  approved  a  scheme  of  engaging  227  Nyaya Mitras in States where there are large number of pendency of court cases. The Nyaya Mitras are required to assist the litigants who are suffering due to delay in investigations or trial, by actively identifying such cases through the National  Judicial  Data  Grid (NJDG). These  Nyaya  Mitras  are  meant  to identify the bottlenecks due to which these cases are delayed.

The Government has also approved two legal aid and empowerment initiatives, Pro bono legal services and Tele Law service.  Under the Pro bono legal services an online database of  lawyers  and eligible litigants  has been created.  As on date 140 lawyers have enrolled under the scheme to provide free legal aid to marginalized persons.  Under the Tele Law service, legal aid is  mainstreamed  through  1800  Common  Services  Centres  in  selected Panchayats in U.P., Bihar and States of North East and J & K.  As on date a total of 568 cases have been registered in Tele Law portal for legal aid.

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## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 600 FOR ANSWER ON 19 TH JULY, 2017.

## Number of Civil and Criminal cases Pending in High Courts as on 31.12.2016

| S. No.   | Name of the High Court   | Civil cases   | Criminal cases   |
|----------|--------------------------|---------------|------------------|
| 1        | Allahabad                | 5,50,375      | 3,65,671         |
| 2        | Andhra Pradesh           | 2,49,855      | 41,906           |
| 3        | Bombay                   | 2,10,459      | 51,190           |
| 4        | Calcutta                 | 1,80,098      | 38,966           |
| 5        | Delhi                    | 49,358        | 17,724           |
| 6        | Gujarat                  | 50,325        | 24,773           |
| 7        | Gauhati                  | 24,044        | 5,425            |
| 8        | Himachal Pradesh         | 19,648        | 5,499            |
| 9        | Jammu &Kashmir           | 53,909        | 5,495            |
| 10       | Karnataka                | 2,53,613      | 24,007           |
| 11       | Kerala                   | 1,28,355      | 38,380           |
| 12       | Madras                   | 2,62,587      | 35,030           |
| 13       | Madhya Pradesh           | 1,80,952      | 1,08,493         |
| 14       | Orissa                   | 1,27,573      | 40,430           |
| 15       | Patna                    | 82,874        | 51,585           |
| 16       | Punjab & Haryana         | 2,09,997      | 92,316           |
| 17       | Rajasthan                | 1,84,451      | 69,680           |
| 18       | Sikkim                   | 129           | 41               |
| 19       | Uttarakhand              | 22,564        | 9,440            |
| 20       | Chhattisgarh             | 35,078        | 20,564           |
| 21       | Jharkhand                | 44,568        | 41,189           |
| 22       | Tripura                  | 2,151         | 394              |
| 23       | Manipur                  | 3,169         | 117              |
| 24       | Meghalaya                | 667           | 33               |
|          | Total                    | 29,26,799     | 10,88,348        |

Source: High Courts.

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## Annexure - II

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 600 FOR ANSWER ON 19 TH JULY, 2017.

## Number of Civil and Criminal cases Pending in District and Subordinate

## Courts as on 31.12.2016

| S. No.   | Name of State/UTs          | Civil cases   | Criminal cases   |
|----------|----------------------------|---------------|------------------|
| 1.       | Andhra Pradesh & Telangana | 5,08,115      | 5,69,829         |
| 2.       | Arunachal Pradesh          | 3,023         | 11,560           |
| 3.       | Assam                      | 68,205        | 1,90,434         |
| 4.       | Bihar                      | 3,39,856      | 17,88,469        |
| 5.       | Chhattisgarh               | 65,581        | 2,24,853         |
| 6.       | Goa                        | 24,924        | 17,150           |
| 7.       | Gujarat                    | 5,51,881      | 12,70,430        |
| 8.       | Haryana                    | 2,44,422      | 3,03,314         |
| 9.       | Himachal Pradesh           | 87,080        | 1,19,861         |
| 10.      | Jammu & Kashmir            | 49,251        | 96,748           |
| 11.      | Jharkhand                  | 64,151        | 2,78,617         |
| 12.      | Karnataka                  | 7,01,928      | 6,60,239         |
| 13.      | Kerala                     | 4,17,790      | 10,64,877        |
| 14.      | Madhya Pradesh             | 1,86,759      | 9,10,875         |
| 15.      | Maharashtra                | 11,21,453     | 21,18,087        |
| 16.      | Manipur                    | 3,637         | 3,341            |
| 17.      | Meghalaya                  | 3,543         | 11,696           |
| 18.      | Mizoram                    | 2,085         | 2,580            |
| 19.      | Nagaland                   | 1,688         | 2,762            |
| 20.      | Orissa                     | 2,73,756      | 7,75,569         |
| 21.      | Punjab                     | 2,44,960      | 2,59,360         |
| 22.      | Rajasthan                  | 2,53,332      | 8,95,372         |
| 23.      | Sikkim                     | 474           | 960              |
| 24.      | Tamil Nadu and Puducherry  | 6,34,690      | 4,64,831         |
| 25.      | Tripura                    | 8,534         | 35,034           |
| 26.      | Uttar Pradesh              | 15,23,215     | 44,56,856        |
| 27.      | Uttarakhand                | 32,062        | 1,58,886         |
| 28.      | West Bengal                | 5,60,684      | 21,68,069        |
| 29.      | A & N Island               | 3,507         | 5,260            |
| 30.      | Chandigarh                 | 15,377        | 23,530           |
| 31.      | Daman & Diu                | 866           | 854              |
| 32.      | D & N Haveli               | 1,533         | 2,233            |
| 33.      | Delhi                      | 1,56,540      | 4,49,641         |
| 34.      | Lakshadweep                | 153           | 204              |
|          | Total                      | 81,55,055     | 1,93,42,381      |

Source: High Courts.

Annexure - III STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 600 FOR ANSWER ON 19 TH JULY, 2017. Statement showing the Approved Strength, Working Strength Vacancies of Judges in the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts.

and (As on 10.07.2017)

| Sl. No.   | Name of the Court                     | Approved Strength   | Approved Strength   | Approved Strength   | Working Strength   | Working Strength   | Working Strength   | Vacancies as per Approved Strength   | Vacancies as per Approved Strength   | Vacancies as per Approved Strength   |
|-----------|---------------------------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| A.        | Supreme Court                         | Pmt                 | 31 Addl             | Total               | Pmt                | 27 Addl            | Total              | Pmt.                                 | 04 Addl                              | Total                                |
| B. 1      | High Court Allahabad                  | 76                  | 84                  | 160                 | 67                 | 24                 | 91                 | 09                                   | 60                                   | 69                                   |
|           | High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad | 46                  | 15                  | 61                  | 27                 | 0                  | 27                 | 19                                   | 15                                   | 34                                   |
| 2 3       | Bombay                                | 71                  | 23                  | 94                  | 54                 | 20                 | 74                 | 17                                   | 03                                   | 20                                   |
| 4         | Calcutta                              | 54                  | 18                  | 72                  | 33                 | 01                 | 34                 | 21                                   | 17                                   | 38                                   |
| 5         | Chhattisgarh                          | 17                  | 05                  | 22                  | 08                 | 05                 | 13                 | 09                                   | 0                                    | 09                                   |
| 6         | Delhi                                 | 45                  | 15                  | 60                  | 38                 | 0                  | 38                 | 07                                   | 15                                   | 22                                   |
| 7         | Gauhati                               | 18                  | 06                  | 24                  | 07                 | 12                 | 19                 | 11                                   | -06                                  | 05                                   |
| 8         | Gujarat                               | 39                  | 13                  | 52                  | 25                 | 06                 | 31                 | 14                                   | 07                                   | 21                                   |
| 9         | Himachal Pradesh                      | 10                  | 03                  | 13                  | 06                 | 02                 | 08                 | 04                                   | 01                                   | 05                                   |
| 10        | Jammu & Kashmir                       | 13                  | 04                  | 17                  | 12                 | 0                  | 12                 | 01                                   | 04                                   | 05                                   |
| 11        | Jharkhand                             | 19                  | 06                  | 25                  | 08                 | 06                 | 14                 | 11                                   | 0                                    | 11                                   |
| 12        | Karnataka                             | 47                  | 15                  | 62                  | 21                 | 08                 | 29                 | 26                                   | 07                                   | 33                                   |
| 13        | Kerala                                | 35                  | 12                  | 47                  | 31                 | 05                 | 36                 | 04                                   | 07                                   | 11                                   |
| 14        | Madhya Pradesh                        | 40                  | 13                  | 53                  | 17                 | 18                 | 35                 | 23                                   | -05                                  | 18                                   |
| 15        | Madras                                | 56                  | 19                  | 75                  | 45                 | 09                 | 54                 | 11                                   | 10                                   | 21                                   |
| 16        | Manipur                               | 04                  | 01                  | 05                  | 02                 | 0                  | 02                 | 02                                   | 01                                   | 03                                   |
| 17        | Meghalaya                             | 03                  | 01                  | 04                  | 03                 | 0                  | 03                 | 0                                    | 01                                   | 01                                   |
| 18        | Orissa                                | 20                  | 07                  | 27                  | 18                 | 0                  | 18                 | 02                                   | 07                                   | 09                                   |
| 19        | Patna                                 | 40                  | 13                  | 53                  | 23                 | 12                 | 35                 | 17                                   | 01                                   | 18                                   |
| 20        | Punjab & Haryana                      | 64                  | 21                  | 85                  | 43                 | 10                 | 53                 | 21                                   | 11                                   | 32                                   |
| 21        | Rajasthan                             | 38                  | 12                  | 50                  | 21                 | 16                 | 37                 | 17                                   | -04                                  | 13                                   |
| 22        | Sikkim                                | 03                  | 0                   | 03                  | 03                 | 0                  | 03                 | 0                                    | 0                                    | 0                                    |
| 23        | Tripura                               | 04                  | 0                   | 04                  | 02                 | 0                  | 02                 |                                      | 0                                    | 02                                   |
| 24        | Uttarakhand                           | 09                  | 02                  | 11                  | 09                 | 01                 | 10                 | 02 0                                 | 01                                   | 01                                   |
|           |                                       |                     |                     |                     |                    |                    |                    |                                      |                                      | 401                                  |
| Total     | Total                                 | 771                 | 308                 | 1079                | 523                | 155                | 678                | 248                                  | 153                                  |                                      |

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