Posted by Huge Pendencies in our Courts and long delays : The high image of judiciary is now being fast eroded by huge pendencies in our Courts and long delays.
The high image of judiciary is now being fast eroded by huge pendencies in our Courts and long delays. Rather it is sometimes said that only those can afford to approach the Courts who have arms of silver which have no dearth of money in spending, and legs of steel which do not of coming again and again to courts. Our justice system is terribly cumbersome, exorbitantly expensive, long time consuming, dilatory, complex, cumulatively disastrous and also stressful, on account of variety of reasons, viz., the poor cannot reach the court because of heavy fee and other expenditure and mystique legal procedure. Truly admitting that our judiciary creaking under the seemingly impossible load of cases awaiting disposal needs urgent attention if we have to avoid collapse of the system, which could put in jeopardy the whole state of orderly society.
Coming to the facts in this regard, the numbers of pending cases at present amount to a staggering 29 million in all the courts taken together in the country. There are cases where the disposal has taken as many as 30 to 40 years. TheStanding Committee of Home Affairs in its Report in 2007 relating to pendency of cases revealed the magnitude of the problem. Pendency of cases is spreading like epidemic, be it the Supreme Court, High Court or Subordinate Courts.
The Department of Justice in the Ministry of Law informed Parliament in March that 26,851,766 cases were pending in subordinate courts. This figure has remained unchanged since at least 2012. The number of cases pending in all the court is estimated to be upwards of 3 crore.
Long pendency of cases in the Supreme Court in India:
Long pendency of cases in the Supreme Court has become a matter of serious concern. But recently, the pendency of cases in the Supreme Court has shown a downward trend. More and more cases are being filed and the piles of arrears continue to mount. They seem like a tide-a-tide of papers and dockets that can’t be stopped. The institution of cases in the Supreme Court of India arose from 1,602 in 1950 to 2,131 in 1955 and to 6,441 in 1960. Further, the institution of cases arose from 5,351 in 1961 to 7,979 in 1965 to 16,106 in 1970 to 12,787 in 1975 to 14,501 in 1977 and 28,382 March, 1978.[1] The pendency of cases which was 1,04,936 as on 31st December, 1997 came down to 58, 794 in 2004 and further down to 46,926 as on 31st December 2007.[2]
The reason for backlog of cases pending is inadequate judge strength and there are
13.05 judges per 1 million people in India, as against
Australia’s 58 per million per 1 million people,
Canada’s 75 per 1 million people,
the United Kingdom 100 per 1 million people and
the United States of America 130 per 1 million people.
In 2002, the Supreme Court has directed the Centre to raise the judge-population ration to 50 per million in a phased manner, as recommended by the Law Commission in its 120th report. The suggestion has had little effect.[3] In 2012, there were 61,876 cases pending in the Supreme Court.
[1] Rajeev Dhawan, The Supreme Court of India: A Socio-Legal Analysis of Its Justice Technique 116(1977); also see Sanjay K. Das, State of Judiciary, Onlooker, July 15, 1990, p.18; Sunil Deshta and Kiran Desta, Practical Advocacy of Law287(2006).
[2] Figure was given by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan while inaugurating the“ALL INDIA SEMINER ON JUDICIAL REFORM” held from 23rd, – 25th Feb. 2008 in New Delhi.
[3] R.D. Sharma, Justice Barred, The Tribune, March 13, 2012 at 9.
NOTE:
More Post Will come very soon related to Speedy Justice in India. Dealyed Justice is the actual roots of Corruption in India because Pending cases are going year’s to year’s and the corrupt people taking advantage of this lacuna. I will brief in future that how Delayed in justice is the root of corruption for corrupt people in India. If Indian Government established Speedy Trial Act and provide More Judges, court infrastructure and many more, i am sure 50% of corruption will be removed from India. Indian judiciary doing good work with limited resources. But the question is who is responsible for not providing More Court, More Judges etc.
Author:
Dr. Dharmender Patial
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