Problem of Pending Court Cases in India

Indian judicial system is reeling under a back-breaking load of 3 Crore pending cases in various levels of the courts across the country. Urgent steps need to be taken to address the situation and at the current pace it will take about 300 years to clear the backlog.

Key facts

• It is the Allahabad High Court which has maximum number of cases, followed by Sikkim and then Delhi High Court. CJI has issued instructions to Chief Justices of many High Courts to clear all cases which have been pending for five years in subordinate judiciary of all states.
• CJI has asked to speed the justice in both civil and criminal cases via Lok Adalats and also alternate dispute resolution mechanism. Amendments to laws as Motor Vehicles Act, the Negotiable Instruments Act and the Arbitration and Conciliation Act have been suggested to fasten the disposal of petty offences which consume maximum time of the court. The authorities are also looking to resolve and address the unwarranted delays.
• Another major issue for high pendency of cases is the poor judge-population ratios, prolonged and costly litigation mainly due to lawyers’ interests, poor infrastructure and shortage of judicial personnel. The Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism is also weak. The vacancies and delays are inter-related inevitably. Ratio of judges to population is 10.5 to 1 million which is the lowest in the world.

Other measures to address the gaps include: infrastructure development of subordinate courts, training of judicial officers, strengthening of state judicial academies, training public prosecutors, implementation of e-court projects for lower judiciary etc. Financial incentives can also be introduced for judges.