51.52L cases pending in HCs & 3.44 crore in local courts
New Delhi: With over 51.52 lakh cases pending in all 25 high courts and over 3.44 crore cases are pending in different district courts, it seems the suggestions of BJP MP Bhupender Yadav-headed parliamentary committee to continue with virtual courts are proving to be the need of the hour as the government's claim of disposal of pending cases at the district level through Gram Nyayalayas has fallen flat. Notably, out of total 51,52,921 pending cases, 36,77,089 are civil cases and 14,75,832 are criminal cases as on September 16, 2020.
According to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, as of now, only 225 gram nyayalayas are operation in the country out of total 395, which have been notified by 12 states. The provision has been made that civil and criminal cases pending before district/session courts or courts subordinate to it falling within the jurisdiction of the gram nyayalayas can be transferred to village-level courts.
As per the latest information provided by the Union Law Minister in reply to a question in Lok Sabha, it has been stated that highest 7,46,677 cases, which includes 3,99,710 civil cases and 3,46,697 criminal cases, are pending Allahabad High Court, while in the High Court of Punjab & Haryana, there are total 6,07,069 cases pending, out of which 3,62,372 are civil cases and 2,44,697 are criminal cases and in the Madras High Court, total pendency is of 5,70,282 cases, which includes 5,11,362 civil and 58,920 criminal cases.
Pendency in other high courts are also high as in the HC of Rajasthan, 5,07,749 cases (3,74,582 civil and 1,33,167 criminal) are yet to be finalised, in Madhya Pradesh HC, 3,75,630 cases, including 2,32,187 civil cases and 1,43,443 criminal cases are still pending for the final verdict. In the High Court of Bombay, 2,24,685 civil and 55,242 criminal cases are pending. The pendency in Calcutta HC is of 2,63,055 cases, out of which 2,11,935 are civil cases and 40,120 are criminal cases.
The HC for the state of Telangana has a total pendency of 2,31,760 cases out of which 1,98,908 are civil cases and 32,852 are criminal cases, the HC of Kerala has pendency of 1,62,495 civil cases and 44,616 criminal cases. So in total 2,07,111 cases are pending in Kerala HC. Andhra Pradesh HC has total pendency of 2,03,124 cases, HC of Karnataka has a pendency of 1,97,690 cases, Gujarat HC has 1,42,118 cases' pendency and Patna HC has a pendency of 1,70,179 cases out of which 95,839 are civil cases and 74,340 are criminal cases.
Pendency in Delhi HC is 90,898 out of which 65,419 are civil cases and 25,479 are criminal cases. The HC of Sikkim has the least number of pendency of 240 cases out of which 194 are civil cases and 46 are criminal cases.
In terms of pendency of cases in district courts, Uttar Pradesh has the highest 81,86,410 cases, including 17,94,177 civil cases and 63,92,233 criminal cases, followed by Maharashtra as the state has total 42,21,418 pending cases in different district courts.
Bihar, which is the home state of the Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, has total pendency of 30,94,186 cases, out of which 4,13,335 are civil cases and 26,80,851 are criminal cases. Surprisingly, 85 per cent of the total pending cases in Bihar is criminal matter, while just 15 per cent are civil matters.
