Lok Sabha Question No. 1417 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-12-27
Subject: Pending Cases
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: RAJESHBHAI NARANBHAI CHUDASAMA, C. N. JAYADEVAN, JAYSHREEBEN  PATEL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF LAW & JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1417

TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 27 TH  DECEMBER, 2017.

## Pending Cases

1417. SHRI RAJESHBHAI CHUDASAMA: SHRI C.N. JAYADEVAN:

SHRIMATI JAYSHREEBEN PATEL:

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

- (a) whether about 2.5 crore cases are pending in the courts across the States and nearly 23 per cent posts in the lower judiciary are lying vacant and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Supreme Court's time frame for appointments in lower judiciary  is  not  being  followed  by  many  States  leading  to  delay  in appointment of judges;
- (c) if so, the State-wise details of the pending cases, the vacant posts of judges and the time taken by each State to fill up the vacancies;
- (d) whether the Government contemplates to establish fast track courts / evening courts to clear this pendency;
- (e)  if  so,  whether  the  Government  has  formulated  any  policy  to implement Gujarat like pattern in the country;
- (f) if so, the details of the court cases related to women in the country; and
- (g) the other measures being taken by the Government to improve the
- situation?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR LAW AND JUSTICE AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS (SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

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(a)  to  (c)  :  Data  on  the  pendency  of  cases  in  courts  is  maintained  by  the Supreme Court and High Courts.  As per information available on the webportal of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), 2.60 crore cases were pending in  various  District  and  Subordinate  Courts  of  the  country  ( excluding District and Subordinate Courts in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Union Territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry) as on 22.12.2017.  As per the  Constitutional  framework,  the  selection  and  appointment  of  judges  in subordinate  courts  is  the  responsibility  of  State  Governments  and  the  High Courts concerned.  As per information made available by the High Courts and respective State Governments, as on 30.11.2017, the sanctioned strength of Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts is 22,677, and the number of  Judicial  Officers  in  position  and  vacant  posts  are  16,693  and  5,984 (26.38%), respectively.  The Supreme Court has devised a process and time schedule to be followed for the filling up of vacancies in lower judiciary.  The order of Supreme Court dated January 4 ,    2007 stated that the process for recruitment of judges in the subordinate courts would commence on March 31 of a calendar year and end by October 31 of the same year.  The Supreme Court has permitted State Governments/ High Courts to seek variations in the time schedule  in case  of any  difficulty having  regard  to the peculiar geographical and climatic conditions in the State or other relevant conditions. The details of State / UT - wise pending cases are given in a Statement at Annexure - I . The details of Vacancies of Judges / Judicial Officers in the District and Subordinate Courts are given in a Statement at Annexure - II .

(d)  &  (e):  The  11 th Finance  Commission  had  recommended  a  scheme  for creation  of  Fast  Track  Courts  in  the  country  for  a  period  of  five  years  upto 2004-05 for disposal of long pending cases and the cases involving undertrial prisoners. Later,  the  scheme  was  continued  upto  31 st March,  2011. Subsequently,  the  14 th Finance  Commission  has  endorsed  the  proposal  to strengthen the judicial system in States which includes, inter-alia , establishing 1800 Fast Track Courts for a period of five years for cases of heinous crimes; cases  involving  senior  citizens,  women,  children,  disabled  and  litigants affected  with  HIV  AIDS  and  other  terminal  ailments;  and  civil  disputes involving land acquisition and property / rent disputes pending for more than five  years  at  a  cost  of  Rs.4,144  crore.    The  14 th Finance  Commission  has urged State Governments to use the additional fiscal space provided by the 14 th Finance Commission in the tax devolution for this purpose.

The 13 th Finance Commission had recommended the establishment of Morning  /  Evening  /  Shift  Courts,  and  these  courts  were,  accordingly established  by  various  State  Governments  including  the  State  of  Gujarat during  the  13 th Finance  Commission  Award  period.    However,  the  amount allocated for these courts could not be utilised fully by the States due to (i) Resistance  from  Bar  Associations,  (ii)  Geographical  &  local  constraints particularly  in  the  North-Eastern  States;  and  (iii)  Non-availability  of  Judicial Officers of appropriate status for these courts etc .

(f) : Data on the pendency of cases in courts is maintained by the Supreme Court  and  High  Courts.    As  per  information  available  on  the  web-portal  of National  Judicial  Data  Grid  (NJDG),  the  details  of  court  cases  related  to women as on 22.12.2017 are given in Statement at Annexure - III.

(g) : It may be mentioned that the Central Government is fully committed to speedy disposal of cases in accordance with Article 21 of the Constitution.  It has undertaken many steps towards achieving this  objective.  One  of  these steps  is, strengthening  of  judicial infrastructure in districts  through  the Centrally Sponsored  Scheme  (CSS)  for Development  of Infrastructure Facilities  for  Judiciary  a  total  of  Rs.  6,006  crore  has  been  released  since 1993-94, out of which Rs. 2,562 crore (42.66%) has been released since April 2014.    17,848  Court  Halls  and  14,085  Residential  Accommodations  have been made available for Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts under this scheme as on 30.11.2017. Out of this 2,429 Court Halls and 4,172 Residential  Accommodations  were  constructed  since  2014  to  till  date.    In addition, 3,143 Court Halls and 1,682 Residential Accommodations are under construction. The Central Government has approved the continuation of the Centrally Sponsored  Scheme  (CSS)  for Development  of Infrastructure Facilities  for  Judiciary  beyond  the  12 th Five  Year  Plan  period i.e. from 01.04.2017 to 31.03.2020 with an estimated outlay of Rs.3,320 crore.

Under the Phase-I of the eCourts Mission Mode Project undertaken by the  Central  Government  from  2010  to  2015,  against  a  total  target  of computerisation of 14,249 courts, the computerisation of 13,672 district and subordinate courts has been achieved.  This includes the software installation of hardware, the LAN and software.  This has enabled the courts to upload the case status and orders online. Status of cases and copies of judgments have also been made available on the websites of the respective District and Subordinate Court Complexes which have been computerised.

The  Central  Government  has  approved  Phase  II  of  the  eCourts Mission  Mode  Project  in  July,  2015  upto  31  March  2019  at  an  outlay  of Rs.1,670 crores.  The facilities of e-services such as cause lists, case status, daily  orders,  judgments etc. are  being  provided  under  the  supervision  of  eCommittee of the Supreme Court and Computer Committees of  respective High  Courts.    A  total  of  16,089  Courts  have  been  computerised  under  the eCourts Project till date. Video Conferencing facility has also been opertionalised  between  500  courts  and  corresponding  prisons  during  the period 2015-17 for faster and timely recording of evidence. Development of National Judicial Data Grid under this project provides updated information on civil  and  criminal  cases,  including  pending  cases,  for  the  computerised district/subordinate courts in the country.

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Annexure-I Statement referred to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1417 for reply

## on 27 th December, 2017

## Details of Pending Cases in District & Subordinate Courts as on 22.12.2017 (NJDG)

| S. No.   | Name of State/UTs      | Total Cases pending as on 22.12.2017   |
|----------|------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| 1        | Uttar Pradesh          | 61,49,151                              |
| 2        | Maharashtra            | 33,20,847                              |
| 3        | West Bengal            | 17,59,144                              |
| 4        | Bihar                  | 16,64,502                              |
| 5        | Gujarat                | 16,48,457                              |
| 6        | Rajasthan              | 14,18,958                              |
| 7        | Karnataka              | 13,70,671                              |
| 8        | Madhya Pradesh         | 13,13,010                              |
| 9        | Kerala                 | 11,47,116                              |
| 10       | Orissa                 | 10,19,392                              |
| 11       | Tamil Nadu             | 10,06,726                              |
| 12       | Haryana                | 6,43,711                               |
| 13       | Delhi                  | 6,06,451                               |
| 14       | Punjab                 | 5,63,309                               |
| 15       | Andhra Pradesh         | 4,94,712                               |
| 16       | Telangana              | 4,13,962                               |
| 17       | Jharkhand              | 3,33,965                               |
| 18       | Chhattisgarh           | 2,70,681                               |
| 19       | Assam                  | 2,34,487                               |
| 20       | Uttarakhand            | 2,10,762                               |
| 21       | Himachal Pradesh       | 2,09,783                               |
| 22       | Jammu And Kashmir      | 1,22,127                               |
| 23       | Goa                    | 39,640                                 |
| 24       | Chandigarh             | 38,270                                 |
| 25       | Tripura                | 25,191                                 |
| 26       | Andaman And Nicobar    | 11,185                                 |
| 27       | Manipur                | 9,584                                  |
| 28       | Meghalaya              | 7,027                                  |
| 29       | Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 3,545                                  |
| 30       | Mizoram                | 3,306                                  |
| 31       | Diu And Daman          | 1,737                                  |
| 32       | Sikkim                 | 1,442                                  |
|          | Total Pending Cases    | 2,60,62,851                            |

Note: Data on pending cases not available on NJDG in respect of State / UTs of  Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Lakshdweep and Puducherry. Data Source : NJDG web-portal.

Annexure - II

## Statement referred to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1417 for reply on 27 th December, 2017.

## Vacancies of Judges / Judicial Officers in the District and Subordinate

Courts

|   Sl. No | States                         | Vacancies as on 30.11.2017   |
|----------|--------------------------------|------------------------------|
|        1 | Uttar Pradesh                  | 1,344                        |
|        2 | Bihar**                        | 825                          |
|        3 | Madhya Pradesh                 | 748                          |
|        4 | Gujarat**                      | 385                          |
|        5 | Tamil Nadu*                    | 341                          |
|        6 | Karnataka**                    | 325                          |
|        7 | Delhi**                        | 316                          |
|        8 | Jharkhand**                    | 251                          |
|        9 | Orissa                         | 204                          |
|       10 | Maharashtra                    | 149                          |
|       11 | Haryana                        | 147                          |
|       12 | Punjab                         | 136                          |
|       13 | Andhra Pradesh & Telangana**   | 114                          |
|       14 | Rajasthan**                    | 96                           |
|       15 | West Bengal and A & N Island** | 84                           |
|       16 | Assam                          | 76                           |
|       17 | Kerala**                       | 73                           |
|       18 | Chhattisgarh                   | 63                           |
|       19 | Uttarakhand**                  | 61                           |
|       20 | Meghalaya                      | 58                           |
|       21 | Jammu & Kashmir                | 39                           |
|       22 | Mizoram                        | 33                           |
|       23 | Tripura                        | 31                           |
|       24 | Manipur                        | 18                           |
|       25 | Pondicherry*                   | 14                           |
|       26 | Goa                            | 12                           |
|       27 | Arunachal Pradesh              | 11                           |
|       28 | Nagaland                       | 11                           |
|       29 | Himachal Pradesh**             | 10                           |
|       30 | Sikkim**                       | 8                            |
|       31 | Lakshadweep**                  | 1                            |
|       32 | Chandigarh                     | 0                            |
|       33 | D & N Haveli AND Daman & Diu** | 0                            |

Data Source : High Courts / State Governments.

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Annexure - III Statement referred to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1417 for reply on 27 th December, 2017.

Details  of  Court  cases  related  to  women  pending  in  District  and Subordinate Courts as on 22.12.2017

| S. No.                      | Name of State/UTs           | Total     |
|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|-----------|
| 1                           | Uttar Pradesh               | 6,43,787  |
| 2                           | Maharashtra                 | 3,11,315  |
| 3                           | Bihar                       | 2,43,987  |
| 4                           | West Bengal                 | 1,95,164  |
| 5                           | Karnataka                   | 1,74,423  |
| 6                           | Tamil Nadu                  | 1,41,637  |
| 7                           | Rajasthan                   | 1,26,116  |
| 8                           | Madhya Pradesh              | 1,24,855  |
| 9                           | Punjab                      | 84,672    |
| 10                          | Andhra Pradesh              | 79,813    |
| 11                          | Haryana                     | 78,624    |
| 12                          | Kerala                      | 78,144    |
| 13                          | Orissa                      | 76,655    |
| 14                          | Gujarat                     | 67,952    |
| 15                          | Telangana                   | 57,438    |
| 16                          | Jharkhand                   | 41,255    |
| 17                          | Delhi                       | 40,618    |
| 18                          | Assam                       | 28,588    |
| 19                          | Himachal Pradesh            | 25,155    |
| 20                          | Chhattisgarh                | 22,951    |
| 21                          | Uttarakhand                 | 10,150    |
| 22                          | Jammu And Kashmir           | 9,803     |
| 23                          | Goa                         | 5,652     |
| 24                          | Chandigarh                  | 5,206     |
| 25                          | Tripura                     | 3,336     |
| 26                          | Manipur                     | 1,806     |
| 27                          | Andaman And Nicobar         | 1,246     |
| 28                          | Meghalaya                   | 913       |
| 29                          | Mizoram                     | 340       |
| 30                          | Dadra and Nagar Haveli      | 156       |
| 31                          | Diu And Daman               | 132       |
| 32                          | Sikkim                      | 127       |
| Total Cases Filed By Female | Total Cases Filed By Female | 26,82,016 |

Data Source : NJDG web-portal.

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