NEW DELHI: A massive pendency seems to be clogging the Indian judicial system again with the backlog of cases touching an all-time high of almost 4 crores now. The key reason attributed is huge vacancies across the three tiers of the judiciary and the infrastructure available for them.
“Collectively we are making a mockery of the judicial system,” the Supreme Court of India had said earlier this week, referring to the huge number of trivial, miscellaneous cases that have prevented the top court from deciding the ones that really matter to those waiting for final verdicts of their long pending matters.
“A common man is not interested in our big legal principles. A litigant only wants to know what is there for him in a case that he has filed, whether he has a case or not. He does not want to wait indefinitely to know whether he was right or not. What does he do with a judgement that takes 10 years or 20 years,” the Supreme Court judges remarked.
An analysis of data available on the National Judicial Data grid suggests that civil cases clog the judicial system more than criminal cases.
Also, the maximum chunk of pendency is attributed to cases that are one year to three years old, followed by cases that are less than one year after its filing.
Interestingly, the oldest cases pending for over 30 years both civil and criminal are just 0.36% of the total.
According to a NITI Aayog strategy paper of 2018, it had noted that at the current rate of disposal of cases by the courts in the country, it will take more than 324 years to clear the backlog.
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the backlog of 30-year- old cases by 61 per cent over the last two years across the country.
The data also shows that the length of time that it takes to adjudicate some cases have increased phenomenally over the years.
Legal experts believe that giving repeating adjournments in a case also leads to high pendency.
Experts also point towards inadequate infrastructure in subordinate courts as a big factor that is driving delays.
324 years of hearing to clear pendency
A NITI aayog strategy paper of 2018 had noted that at the current rate of disposal of cases by the courts in the country, it will take more than 324 years to clear the backlog.
