Lok Sabha Question No. 2698 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-10
Subject: Pending Court Cases
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Chunni Lal Sahu

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. † 2698 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 10 TH   MARCH, 2021

## PENDING COURT CASES

## † 2698. SHRI CHUNNI LAL SAHU:

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

- (a) whether the Government has issued any guidelines under the new policy for the early disposal of the pending cases in the courts in the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the number of pending cases in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh during the last two years and the current year;
- (c)  whether shortage of judges is the main reason for the pendency of cases and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a)  and  (c):  Disposal  of  cases  in  courts  is  within  the  domain  of  the  judiciary. 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,  cooperation of stake holders viz. bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures. Government has no role in disposal of cases in courts. 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 steps taken during the last six years under various initiatives are as follows:

- (i) Improving  infrastructure  for  Judicial  Officers  of  District  and  Subordinate Courts: As on date, Rs. 8,294.67 crores have been released since the inception of  the  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  (CSS)  for  Development  of  Infrastructure Facilities  for  Judiciary  in  1993-94.  The  number  of  court  halls  has  increased from  15,818  as  on  30.06.2014  to  20,070  as  on  04.03.2021  and  number  of residential units has increased from 10,211  as on 30.06.2014 to 17,735 as on 04.03.2021  under  this  scheme.  In  addition,  2,846  court  halls  and  1,842 residential units are under construction.

(ii) Leveraging  Information  and  Communication  Technology  (ICT)  for improved  justice  delivery:  Government  has  been  implementing  the  e-Courts Mission Mode Project throughout the country for Information and Communication  Technology  enablement  of  district  and  subordinate  courts. Number  of  computerized  District  &  Subordinate  courts  has  increased  from 13,672 (in 2014) to 18,735 as on 22.02.2021, registering an increase of 5,063.

New  and  user-friendly version of Case Information Software has been developed  and  deployed  at  all  the  computerized  District  and  Subordinate Courts.    All  stakeholders  including  Judicial  Officers  can  access  information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of computerized District & Subordinate  Courts  and  High  Courts  on  the  National  Judicial  Data  Grid (NJDG). As on 03.03.2021, litigants can access case status of over 18.28 crore cases  and  13.88  crore  order/judgements  pertaining  to  these  courts.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  computerized  courts,  eCourts Mobile  App,  email  service,  SMS  push  &  pull  services.  Video  Conferencing facility has been enabled between 3240 court complexes and 1272 corresponding jails. With a view to handle the COVID- 19 challenges better and to make the transition to virtual hearings smoother, funds have been provided for setting up 235 e-SewaKendras at court complexes to facilitate lawyers and litigants needing assistance ranging from case status, getting judgements/orders, court/case  related  information  and  efiling  facilities.  Nine  Virtual  Courts  have been  set  up  at  Delhi  (2  courts),  Faridabad  (Haryana),  Pune  &  Nagpur (Maharashtra) Kochi (Kerala), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Guwahati (Assam) and Bengaluru (Karnataka) to try traffic offences. As  on 20.01.2021, these courts have handled 41,98,095 cases and realised Rs.139.25cr in fines.

- (iii) Filling up of vacant positions in Supreme Court, High Courts and District and Subordinate Courts: From 01.05.2014 to 01.03.2021, 35 Judges were appointed in Supreme Court. 576 new Judges were appointed and 524 Additional Judges were  made  permanent  in  the  High  Courts.  Sanctioned  strength  of  Judges  of High  Courts  has  been  increased  from  906  in  May,  2014  to  1080  currently.

Sanctioned and working strength of Judicial Officers in District and Subordinate Courts has increased as follows:

| As on      | Sanctioned Strength   | Working Strength   |
|------------|-----------------------|--------------------|
| 31.12.2013 | 19,518                | 15,115             |
| 04.03.2021 | 24,283                | 19,295             |

Filling up of vacancies in Subordinate judiciary falls within the domain of the State Governments and High Courts concerned.

- (iv) Reduction  in  Pendency  through  /  follow  up  by  Arrears  Committees:  In pursuance  of  resolution  passed  in  Chief  Justices'  Conference  held  in  April, 2015,  Arrears  Committees  have  been  set  up  in  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.

Further Communications have been addressed by Minister of Law & Justice to  Chief  Justices  of  High  Courts  and  to  Chief  Ministers  on  20.06.2014  and 14.08.2018 drawing their attention to  cases  pending  for  more  than  five  years and to take up pendency reduction campaign.

- (v) Emphasis on Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR): Commercial Courts Act, 2015 (as  amended  on  20 th August, 2018) stipulates mandatory pre-institution mediation and settlement of commercial disputes. Amendment to the

Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been made by the Arbitration and Conciliation  (Amendment)  Act  2015  for  expediting  the  speedy  resolution  of disputes by prescribing timelines.

- (vi) 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.  As  on  31.01.2021,  894  Fast  Track  Courts  are  functional  for heinous crimes, crimes against women and children etc. To fast track criminal cases involving elected MPs / MLAs, ten (10) Special Courts are functional in nine  (9)  States/UTs  (1  each  in  Madhya  Pradesh,  Maharashtra,  Tamil  Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and 2 in NCT  of  Delhi).  Further,  Government  has  approved  a  scheme  for  setting  up 1023  Fast  Track  Special  Courts  (FTSCs)  across  the  country  for  expeditious disposal of pending cases of Rape under IPC and crimes under POCSO Act. As on  date,  28  States/UTs  have  joined  the  scheme  for  setting  up  of  842  FTSCs including  363  'exclusive  POCSO  Courts'.  Rs.140  crore  was  released  in  the financial  year  2019-20  and  Rs.  135.26  crore  has  been  released  during  the financial year 2020-21 for the scheme. 616 FTSCs are functional including 330 exclusive POCSO Courts, which disposed 39653 cases as on 31.01.2021.
- (vii) In addition, to reduce pendency and unclogging of the courts the Government has recently amended various laws like the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Commercial Courts (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Specific  Relief  (Amendment)  Act,  2018,  the  Arbitration  and  Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2018.
- (b):  The details of pending cases in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh during the last two years and the current year is as under:-

|   Sl. No | Name of High Court   |   2019 |   2020 |   2021 (as on 05.03.2021) |
|----------|----------------------|--------|--------|---------------------------|
|        1 | Chhattisgarh         |  69316 |  75836 |                     76650 |
|        2 | Madhya Pradesh       | 357929 | 362932 |                    371191 |

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