Case pendency in HCs, district courts highest this year: Govt in LS
The pending cases in Supreme Court, however, registered a decline compared to last year, with 68,781 cases pending as on November 1.
All high courts and district courts had more cases pending this year than in any previous year, according to data released by the government on Friday that showed 42.5 million cases yet to be concluded in the lower courts and 5.3 million in the appellate courts.
The pending cases in Supreme Court, however, registered a decline compared to last year, with 68,781 cases pending as on November 1.
The Supreme Court website provides an updated statistic of 69,598 as on December 1.
Also Read | Shashi Tharoor injured 'in action', sprains ankle after missing step at Parliament
The data released by the government came in response to a set of questions raised by Lok Sabha members Shankar Lalwani, Arun Kumar Sagar, Sangeeta Azad, Ranjeeta Koli, Dr Manoj Rajoria, Kodikunnil Suresh: Dr Bharatiben Dhirubhai Shiyal, Balak Nath, Gopal Chinnaya Shetty, Gaurav Gogoi, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Sanjay Seth, Hanuman Beniwal, Chandrani Murmu, DM Kathir Anand and Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, seeking year-wise and court-wise figures on cases pending and disposed of.
Also Read | Over 11.4L cases pending in family courts, must be settled expeditiously: LS MPs
The five high courts contributing the most to the pending cases tally were Allahabad (1.03 million), Punjab and Haryana (590,071), Patna (444,370), Jharkhand (420,758) and Bombay (371,787). The pendency in the Delhi high court in the past 10 months was 106,110. Overall, the number pending in high courts 0.82% higher than the year before.
In the case of district courts, the pending cases were 4.32% more than in 2021, with 42.8 million yet to reach conclusion. This is a steep rise from the 26.4 million pending in 2014, and a marginal increase from the 41 million last year.
Also Read | Lok Sabha reshuffles MPs’ seating plan
The top five states contributing to this hike this year were Uttar Pradesh (10.6 million), Maharashtra (4.9 million), Bihar (3.4 million), West Bengal (2.4 million) and Rajasthan (2.2 million).
A look at the disposal rate figures over the past eight years narrates offer an equally concerning view. While no year-wise disposal rate is provided for Supreme Court, the Union law minister Kiren Rijiju replied that till October 31, high courts disposed of 0.6 million cases, compared to 1.44 million last year. The highest number of cases cleared was 1.7 million in 2014.
The story is similar in district courts. The subordinate judiciary has in this year managed to clear a mere 6.9 million cases against the 17 million last year. In 2014, this figure stood at 19 million while the record-breaking performance since then was in 2019, when a whopping 29.9 million cases were weeded out of the judicial docket.
On Constitution bench cases, the government told Parliament that 10 Constitution Bench cases were disposed of by Supreme Court this year and in 2020, almost 130 Constitution bench cases stood decided.
As on December 1, nearly 488 Constitution bench matters are pending in the top court, of which 54 are main matters while 434 are connected matters. In another statistic, the Government revealed that over 10,000 PILs are pending across the 25 high courts in the country.
