Lok Sabha Question No. 3632 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-01-02
Subject: Pending Court Cases
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: MD. BADARIDDOZA KHAN

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3632

TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 02 ND  JANUARY, 2019.

## Pending Court Cases

## 3632. SHRI MD. BADARUDDOZA KHAN:

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

- (a) whether a number of cases are pending in various courts across the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof including number of cases pending in Supreme Court and  High  Courts  during  each  of  the  last  four  years  along  with  the  reasons therefor court-wise;
- (c)  the  sanctioned  strength  and  vacancies  of  Judges  in  such  courts  and  action taken by Government to fill these vacancies at the earliest;
- (d)  whether  the  Government  has  taken  note  of  delay  in  delivery  of  justice  to litigants for various reasons; and
- (e)  if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  the  corrective  measures  taken  by  the Government for expeditious disposal of cases pending in various courts in the country?

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR LAW AND JUSTICE AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS

## ANSWER (SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

- (a) to (e) : The details of cases pending in the Supreme Court and  High Courts  of the country during the last four years are given below:

| Court         | Number of Cases Pending during last four years   | Number of Cases Pending during last four years   | Number of Cases Pending during last four years   | Number of Cases Pending during last four years   |
|---------------|--------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|
|               | Year 2015                                        | Year 2016                                        | Year 2017                                        | Year 2018                                        |
| Supreme Court | 59,272                                           | 62,537                                           | 55,588                                           | 56,994 (As on 01.12.2018)                        |
| High Courts   | 38,70,373                                        | 40,15,147                                        | 42,44,907                                        | 49,83,236 (As on 27.12.2018)                     |

High Court-wise details of pending cases are given in a statement at Annexure .

Court-wise  details  of  sanctioned  strength,  working  strength  and  vacancies  of Judges / Judicial Officers are as below:

| Court         | Sanctioned Strength   |   Working Strength |   Vacancies |
|---------------|-----------------------|--------------------|-------------|
| Supreme Court | 31                    |                 27 |           4 |
| High Courts   | 1,079                 |                692 |         387 |

As per the Constitutional framework, the selection and appointment of judges in subordinate  courts  is  the  responsibility  of  the  High  Courts  and  State  Governments concerned.  In so far as recruitment of judicial officers in the States is concerned, in certain States recruitment is done by the High Courts, whereas in other States, the recruitment is done by High Courts in consultation with State Public Service Commission.

During the Chief Justice's Conference held in 2016 it was, inter-alia, resolved that the Chief Justices shall take effective steps in coordination with the State Governments to ensure  an  increase  in  the  cadre  strength  of the  District  and  Subordinate  Courts commensurate  with  the  needs  of  their  states  in  compliance  with  the  judgment  of  the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Brij Mohan Lal versus Union of India, and to ensure compliance with the time schedule and directions laid down in the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Malik Mazhar Sultan case (2006).  It was also resolved that the Chief Justices shall,  in  particular,  ensure  that  the  Selection  and  Appointment  Committees  in  the  High Courts  periodically  monitor  the  process  of  filling  up  of  vacancies  in  the  District  and Subordinate Courts.

In September, 2016, Union Minister of Law & Justice wrote to the Chief Ministers of  States  and  the  Chief  Justices  of  High  Courts  to  enhance  the  cadre  strength  of  the District and Subordinate Courts and provide physical infrastructure to the State judiciary. The  same  was  reiterated  in  May,  2017.  In  August,  2018,  in  the  context  of  increasing pendency of cases, the Union Minister of Law & Justice has written to all Chief Justices of High  Courts  to  monitor  the  status  of  the  vacancies  regularly  and  to  ensure  proper coordination with the State Public Service Commission to fill up vacant posts as per time schedule prescribed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the Malik Mazhar Sultan case.  The filling  up  of  vacancies is also being monitored by the Supreme Court in a suo-motu writ petition (civil) no. 2 of 2018.

A series of meetings were held with Registrars General of all High Courts and Law Secretaries of all State Governments / UTs through Video Conferencing in  January, 2018, July,  2018  and  November,  2018  to  follow  up  on  filling  up  posts  of  Judicial  Officers  in District and Subordinate Courts.

The Department of Justice has hosted a web-portal on its website for reporting and monitoring of sanctioned and working strength, and vacancies of Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts on monthly basis.

Filling  up  of  vacancies  in  the  High  Courts  is  a  continuous  and  collaborative process, between the Executive and the Judiciary.  It requires consultation and approval from various Constitutional Authorities.  Initiation of proposals for appointment of Judges in the  High  Courts  vests  with  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  concerned  High  Court.  While  every effort is made to fill up the existing vacancies expeditiously, vacancies in High Courts keep on arising on account of retirement, resignation or elevation of Judges (to the Supreme Court) and also due to increase in the strength of Judges.

Timely disposal of  cases  in  courts  depends  on  several  factors  which,  inter-alia, include  availability  of  adequate  number  of  judges,  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.  No time frame has been prescribed for disposal of various kinds of cases by the respective courts.

The Government is, however, fully committed to speedy disposal of cases. The Government has taken several initiatives to  provide an  ecosystem for faster  disposal of cases  by  the  judiciary.    The  National  Mission  for  Justice  Delivery  and  Legal  Reforms established  by  the  Government  has  adopted  a  coordinated  approach  for  phased liquidation  of  arrears  and  pendency  in  judicial  administration  through  various  strategic initiatives, including improving infrastructure for courts, leveraging Information and Communication  Technology  (ICT)  for  better  justice  delivery,  and  filling  up  of  vacant positions of Judges in High Courts and Supreme Court.  The major achievements during the  last  four  years  under  various  initiatives  to  make  the  functioning  of    judiciary  more efficient are as follows:

- (i) Improving infrastructure for Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts: As on date,  Rs.6,623.87  crores  have  been  released  since  the  inception  of  the  Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary in 1993-94.  Out of this, 3,179.57 crores (which are 48% of the total amount released till date) have been released to the States and UTs since April, 2014.  The number of court halls has increased from 15,818 as on 30.06.2014 to 18,731 as on date and number of residential units has increased from 10,211 as on 30.06.2014 to 16,539 as on date under this scheme.  In addition, 2,906 court halls and 1,754 residential units are under construction.  The Central Government has approved continuation of the Scheme beyond the 12 th Five  Year Plan period i.e. from  01.04.2017 to 31.03.2020 with an estimated additional outlay of Rs.3,320 crore.
- (ii) Leveraging  Information  and  Communication  Technology  (ICT)  for  improved  justice delivery: Number of computerised District & Subordinate courts has increased from 13,672  to  16,755  registering  an  increase  of  3,083  during  2014  to  2018.    National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) provides citizens with online information about case filings, case  status  and  electronic  copies  of  orders  and  judgments  from  district  and subordinate courts that have already been computerized. Information regarding 10.80 crore cases including more than three crore pending cases and more than 7.91 crore orders / judgments are available on this portal.  eCourts services such as details of case registration, cause list, case status, daily orders & final judgments are available to litigants and advocates through eCourts web portal, Judicial Service Centres (JSC) in  all  computerised  courts,  eCourts  Mobile  App,  email  service,  SMS  push  &  pull services.    eCourts  Project  has  been  consistently  amongst  the  top  5  Mission  Mode Projects of country.
- (iii) Filling up of vacant positions in Supreme Court & High Courts.

From 01.01.2014  to  26.12.2018,  27  Judges  were  appointed  in  Supreme  Court. 446 new Judges were appointed and 379 Additional were made permanent in the High Courts.  Sanctioned  strength  of  Judges  of  High  Courts  has  been  increased  from  906  in May, 2014 to 1079 currently.

- (iv) Reduction  in  Pendency  through  /  follow  up  by  Arrears  Committees:  Further,  in pursuance  of  resolution  passed  in  Chief  Justices'  Conference  held  in  April,  2015, Arrears Committees have been set up in 24 High Courts to clear cases pending for more than five years.  Arrears Committees have been set up under District Judges too.    Arrears  Committee  has  been  constituted  in  the  Supreme  Court  to  formulate steps to reduce pendency of cases in High Courts and District Courts.
- (v) Nyaya Mitra Scheme: In order to reduce cases pending in courts for over 10 years, the  Government  launched  the  Nyaya  Mitra  Scheme  in  April  2017.    Under  the Scheme,  retired  judicial  officers  are  engaged  and  designated  as  ' Nyaya  Mitra '  to facilitate expeditious disposal of the cases pending over 10 years.  In the first Phase, 15 Nyaya Mitra have been engaged in 15 Districts of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura.
- (vi) Emphasis on Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR): Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Act, 2018 has been enacted on 20 th August, 2018 whereby mandatory pre-Institution mediation mechanism has been introduced for settlement of commercial disputes. Amendment to  the  Arbitration  and  Conciliation  Act,  1996  by  the  Arbitration  and  Conciliation (Amendment)  Act  2015  is  done  to  expedite  the  speedy  resolution  of  disputes  by prescribing timelines. The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2018 passed by the Lok Sabha on 10.08.2018 seeks to set up Arbitration Council of India (ACI) to inter-alia grade arbitral institutions, accredit arbitrators and impart training and award certificate in the ADR field.
- (vii)  Initiatives to Fast Track Special Type of Cases: The Fourteenth Finance Commission endorsed the proposal of the Government to strengthen the judicial system in States which included, inter-alia , establishing Fast Track Courts for cases of heinous crimes; cases involving senior citizens, women, children etc ., and urged the State Governments to use the additional fiscal space provided in the form of enhanced tax devolution form 32% to 42% to meet such requirements.  At present, 708 such Fast Track Courts are functioning across the country. To fast track criminal cases involving elected  MPs  /  MLAs,  twelve  (12)  Special  Courts  have  been  set  up  in  eleven  (11) States  (Andhra  Pradesh,  Telangana,  Kerala,  Karnataka,  Tamil  Nadu,  Maharashtra,

Madhya  Pradesh,  Uttar  Pradesh,  Bihar,  West  Bengal  and  NCT  of  Delhi)  and proportionate  funds  have  been  released  to  these  States  by  the  Government.  The Criminal  Law  (Amendment)  Act,  2018  to  amend  the  Indian  Penal  Code,  Indian Evidence  Act,  1872,  the  Code  of  Criminal  Procedure,  1973  and  the  Protection  of Children from Sexual Offices Act, 2012 has been enacted on 11 th August, 2018.

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## Annexure

## Statement referred to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3632 for reply on 02 nd January, 2019 regarding Pending Court Cases

## Number of cases pending in High Courts as on 27.12.2018

| Sr. No.   | High Court Name                       |   Cases pending in High Courts |
|-----------|---------------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| 1.        | Allahabad High Court                  |                         725143 |
| 2.        | Calcutta High Court                   |                         243661 |
| 3.        | Gauhati High Court                    |                          40448 |
| 4.        | High Court of Bombay                  |                         464074 |
| 5.        | High Court of Chhattisgarh            |                          63574 |
| 6.        | High Court of Delhi                   |                          73879 |
| 7.        | High Court of Gujarat                 |                         113746 |
| 8.        | High Court of Himachal Pradesh        |                          36117 |
| 9.        | High Court of Jammu and Kashmir       |                          91626 |
| 10.       | High Court of Jharkhand               |                          88931 |
| 11.       | High Court of Judicature At Hyderabad |                         361010 |
| 12.       | High Court of Karnataka               |                         236697 |
| 13.       | High Court of Kerala                  |                         193329 |
| 14.       | High Court of Madhya Pradesh          |                         331300 |
| 15.       | High Court of Manipur                 |                           7121 |
| 16.       | High Court of Meghalaya               |                           1063 |
| 17.       | High Court of Punjab And Haryana      |                         393953 |
| 18.       | High Court of Rajasthan               |                         741358 |
| 19.       | High Court of Sikkim                  |                            255 |
| 20.       | High Court of Tripura                 |                           2985 |
| 21.       | High Court of Uttarakhand             |                          55812 |
| 22.       | Madras High Court                     |                         399234 |
| 23.       | Orissa High Court                     |                         167277 |
| 24.       | Patna High Court                      |                         150643 |
|           | Total                                 |                        4983236 |

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