Arora rakes up court pendency issue in RS

Ludhiana member parliament (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora raised the issue of pendency of cases in courts across the country in the budget session of Rajya Sabha.

Ludhiana member parliament (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora raised the issue of pendency of cases in courts across the country in the budget session of Rajya Sabha.

Ludhiana member parliament (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora raised the issue of pendency of cases in courts across the country in the budget session of Rajya Sabha. (HT File)

In response, Union minister of state (independent charge) for law and justice Arjun Ram Meghwal provided information about the total number of cases pending in the Indian judiciary for the last five years. The minister provided the data as per information available on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).

According to the available data, in 2022, the number of cases in the supreme court was 69,768, which increased to 80,765 in 2023. While there were 62,12,375 pending cases in 2023 in the high court and 4,44,09,480 pending cases in district and sessions courts in 2023.

Meghwal, further in response to Arora’s question, said that there are several reasons that lead to pendency of cases in courts which, inter-alia, include availability of physical infrastructure and supporting court staff, complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, co-operation of stake holders including bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures.

Arora said the minister further mentioned in his reply that other factors that lead to delay in disposal of cases include lack of prescribed timeframe by respective courts for disposal of various kinds of cases, frequent adjournments and lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing. Moreover, in case of pendency of criminal cases, the criminal justice system functions on assistance by various agencies - including police, prosecution, forensic labs, handwriting experts and medico-legal experts. Delay in providing assistance by allied agencies also entails delay in disposal of cases.

Further, the minister replied that the resolution of pending cases in courts is within the exclusive domain of the judiciary. However, the government is committed towards facilitating an ecosystem for expeditious disposal of cases by judiciary and reducing pendency as mandated under Article 21 of the Constitution. To this end, the government setup the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms in 2011, with the twin objectives of increasing access by reducing delays and arrears in the system and enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards and capacities.