KOCHI: The paucity of judges did not slow down the functioning of the Kerala High Court last year.
In fact, the court, which has 36 judges against a sanctioned strength of 47 – with A J Desai as the Chief Justice – besides 2,068 staff, recorded a case disposal rate of 88% in 2023, which is slightly higher than its 85% disposal rate in 2022, as per the data available with the court.
In numbers, the HC disposed of 86,700 of the 98,985 cases filed in 2023, compared to 78,280 of the 92,030 cases filed in 2022.
Among judges, Justice P V Kunhikrishnan topped the list in the disposal of the case. In 2023, Justice Kunhikrishnan disposed of 9,360 cases.
He was followed by Justice Devan Ramachandran who disposed of 6,160 cases, and Justice Gopinath P who disposed of 5,080 cases. Justice Mary Joseph recorded the lowest disposal numbers with 459 cases.
Advocate Yeswanth Shenoy had earlier filed a petition in the HC seeking fewer listing of cases before Justice Mary Joseph per day.
However, the HC registrar general had dismissed it saying the number of cases for listing will vary from time to time, considering the nature of cases the HC dealt with.
Yeswanth, who is also president of the Kerala HC Advocates Association, said justice should be ensured only with the speedy disposal of cases. “The Bar will always help the Bench in quick disposal. The one-sided e-filing system is putting severe strain on the judiciary,” he said.
Interestingly, as per the HC’s records, 15 cases have been pending for over 30 years, while 919 cases have been pending for 20 to 30 years. Until December 2023, a staggering 2,54,443 cases are pending in the HC.
Meanwhile, the records with the Supreme Court said the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA) provided legal aid to 29,200 people in 2023. the records also showed that KeLSA conducted 5,867 legal awareness programmes which were attended by a total of 4,70,242 people. The Kerala Judicial Academy conducted 46 training programmes in the year which were attended by 2,575 officers, revealed the records.