UP: As cases pile up, govt depts fail to meet deadlines for filing counter affidavits

The state government’s move to expedite disposal of pending cases by filing counter affidavits has apparently failed to deliver desired results as the departments concerned have not been able to clear the backlog even as fresh cases continue to pile up.

At a high-level meeting held here on May 7, the state government had decided to launch a campaign to clear the backlog of cases by June 30.

All the departments concerned were asked to file counter affidavits.

Counter affidavit is an affidavit filed by an officer of respective department to put the government’s stand in a case. It is an affidavit made in opposition to one already made by a petitioner.

As more cases piled up due to delay in filing of counter affidavits in some of the departments even after the deadline, the state government has now asked them to take a serious note of the issue and clear the backlog by October 31.

Advocate general Raghvendra Pratap Singh said, “We have asked the departments to appoint a nodal officer for coordination and ensure that counter affidavits are filed in cases at the earliest. This issue has not been taken seriously in the past few years. This also has financial implications on the government. We are now trying to speed up the entire process.”

A scrutiny of the data available on the Court Cases Information System (COCIS) indicates that as on October 23, counter affidavits have to be filed in 20,808 cases.

These include 13,605 cases in Lucknow and 7,203 cases in Allahabad.

Five departments which have the highest number of pending counter affidavits include revenue (5,551), home (3,437), basic education (1,444), urban development (1,084) and secondary education (1,059).

The state revenue department tops the departments where the number of counter affidavits to be filed has gone up after the campaign to clear the backlog ended.

Other departments adding the backlog after the deadline include home (613), urban development (828), energy (324) and social welfare department (126).

A senior officer said the number of pending counter affidavits had come down considerably in some other departments. Secondary education department tops this list where pendency has come down by 3,913.

Other departments have been now asked to follow the example of secondary education department and begin clearing the backlog on a war footing.

The departments that have been able to bring down the number considerably include basic education (1,343), higher education (420), medical and health (255), finance (419) and industrial development (411).

According to PRS Legislative Research, the total number of counter affidavits pending in the Allahabad high court was 9,25,084 in September 2016. Total number of pending cases in district and subordinate courts in the state was 60, 47,069 in September 2016.