The Punjab and Haryana high court has said that 66% of cases filed during Covid-19 outbreak have been disposed of.
An official said there is a total pendency of 4.5 lakh cases in the high court and between March 24, 2020 and August 31, 2021, as many as 1,37,101 cases were filed. Of these, 90,543 cases –nearly 66% --- were disposed of. Courts had to be shut due to Covid-19 outbreak on March 24, 2020.
The HC administration has reacted to some reports claiming that pendency in the court has gone up to 7 lakh cases during Covid. The mismatch in data being shown on the national judicial data grid was due to some glitch in two internal case management systems of high court. The synchronisation has now been done.
Sharing details about the trial courts, the officer said that between April 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021, as many as 7,23,041 cases were filed in Punjab courts and 4,42,693 were disposed of. In Haryana, 7,37,718 cases were filed and 3,93,831 were disposed of during this period. In Chandigarh, 39,595 cases were instituted and 27,767 were disposed of in the same period.
The official further said that due to second wave in April-May this year, the functioning of courts was badly affected and the limited physical hearings started in February had to be withdrawn but now these have been resumed.