New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, it has come to notice that over 4.69 crore cases are pending in different courts of the country, including Supreme Court and high courts.
According to Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, the apex court has a pendency of 70,154 cases, while over 58.90 lakh cases are pending in different high courts, and district and subordinate courts have the pendency of over 4.09 crore litigations across the country.
In a written reply, the Union Law Minister told Lok Sabha on Friday that the Supreme Court had a pendency of 59,535 cases in 2019 till December 2, which increased to 64,426 cases in 2020 till December 4. The pending cases in the top court were 69,855 in 2021 till December 4 and in 2022 (as on March 2), total 70,154 cases are pending in the Supreme Court, the minister said in his written reply.
As per the case pendency data provided by the Union minister, the situation is quite alarming in 25 different high courts as the pendency of cases has scaled up to 58,90,726 in 2022 till March 28 from 56,49,068 in 2021 till December 31.
The high courts had a pendency of 46,84,354 cases in 2019 till December 31 and 56,42,567 cases were pending in 2020 when physical courts were suspended due to the restrictions imposed to prevent the transmission of Covid-19.
As per the data, the district and subordinate courts had a pendency of 3,22,96,224 cases in 2019, which increased further to 3,66,39,436 in 2020 and 4,05,79,062 in 2021. As of now, total 4,09,85,490 cases are pending in different districts and subordinate courts till March 28, 2022.
In response to the average time taken by high courts for the disposal of various civil cases, the minister told the House that the disposal of pending cases in courts is within the domain of the judiciary.
"No time frame has been prescribed for disposal of various kinds of cases by the respective courts. Also, the government has no role in the disposal of cases in courts. Timely disposal of cases in courts depends on several factors which include the availability of an adequate number of judges and judicial officers, supporting court staff and physical infrastructure, the complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, cooperation of stakeholders such as bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures," the minister said.
"There are several factors which may lead to delay in disposal of cases such as vacancies of judges, frequent adjournments and lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing," the minister said, adding that the government is fully committed to speedy disposal of cases in accordance with Article 21 of the Constitution and reducing pendency.