(a) whether the Government maintains a record of the number of cases pending in the courts situated in India;
(b) if so, the details thereof, States/UTs wise;
(c) whether the Government, on its part, is taking steps to faster the delivery of justice in India; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE
(SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)
(a) & (b): The information on pending cases as available on National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) in respect of High Courts and Subordinate Courts, State/UTs-wise, is enclosed at Annexure-I & Annexure-II respectively. The total number of cases pending in the Hon’ble Supreme Court is 69,212 as on 02.07.2021.
(c) & (d): 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. Government has no role in disposal of cases in courts. The Central Government is fully committed to speedy disposal of cases in accordance with Article 21 of the Constitution and reducing pendency. The Government has taken several initiatives to provide an ecosystem for faster disposal of cases by the judiciary. National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms was set up in August, 2011 with the twin objectives of increasing access by reducing delays and arrears in the system and enhancing accountability through structural changes and by setting performance standards and capacities. The Mission has been pursuing a co-ordinated approach for phased liquidation of arrears and pendency in judicial administration, which, inter-alia, involves better infrastructure for courts including computerization, increase in strength of subordinate judiciary, policy and legislative measures in the areas prone to excessive litigation, re-engineering of court procedure for quick disposal of cases and emphasis on human resource development.
The major steps taken during the last six years under various initiatives are as follows:
(i) Improving infrastructure for Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts: As on date, Rs. 8,644.00 crores have been released since the inception of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary in 1993-94. The number of court halls has increased from 15,818 as on 30.06.2014 to 20,218 as on 22.07.2021 and number of residential units has increased from 10,211 as on 30.06.2014 to 17,815 as on 22.07.2021 under this scheme. In addition, 2,693 court halls and 1,852 residential units are under construction. The Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary has been extended till 2025-26 at a total cost of Rs. 9000 crores, out of which Central share will be Rs. 5307 crores. Besides, construction of Court Halls and Residential Units, it would also cover construction of Lawyer’s Halls, Toilet Complexes and Digital Computer Rooms.
(ii) Leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for improved justice delivery: Government has been implementing the e-Courts Mission Mode Project throughout the country for Information and Communication Technology enablement of district and subordinate courts. Number of computerized District & Subordinate courts has increased from 13,672 (in 2014) to 18,735 as on 01.07.2021, registering an increase of 5,063. New and user-friendly version of Case Information Software has been developed and deployed at all the computerized District and Subordinate Courts. All stakeholders including Judicial Officers can access information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of computerized District & Subordinate Courts and High Courts on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG). As on 01.07.2021, litigants can access case status of over 18.77 crore cases and 14.61 crore order/judgements pertaining to these courts. eCourts services such as details of case registration, cause list, case status, daily orders & final judgments are available to litigants and advocates through eCourts web portal, Judicial Service Centres (JSC) in all computerized courts, eCourts Mobile App, email service, SMS push & pull services. Video Conferencing facility has been enabled between 3240 court complexes and 1272 corresponding jails. With a view to handle the COVID- 19 challenges better and to make the transition to virtual hearings smoother, funds have been provided for setting up 235 e-SewaKendras at court complexes to facilitate lawyers and litigants needing assistance ranging from case status, getting judgements/orders, court/case related information and efiling facilities. Rs. 5.01 crores has been allocated for providing equipment in Video Conferencing cabins in various court complexes to facilitate virtual hearings. Rs. 12.12 crores has been allocated for 1732 Help desk counters for efiling in various court complexes.
Twelve Virtual Courts have been set up at Delhi (2 courts), Faridabad (Haryana), Pune & Nagpur (Maharashtra) Kochi (Kerala), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Guwahati (Assam) and Bengaluru (Karnataka) to try traffic offences. As on 12.07.2021, these courts have handled 75 lakh cases and realised Rs.160.05 crore in fines.
Video conferencing emerged as the mainstay of the Courts during the Covid lockdown period as physical hearings and normal court proceedings in the congregational mode were not possible. Since Covid lockdown started, the District courts heard 74,15,989 cases while the High Court heard 40,43,300 cases (totalling to 1.14 crore) till 30.06.2021 using video conferencing only. The Supreme Court had 96,239 hearings since the lockdown period upto 09.07.2021.
(iii) Filling up of vacant positions in Supreme Court, High Courts and District and Subordinate Courts: From 01.05.2014 to 01.03.2021, 35 Judges were appointed in Supreme Court. 602 new Judges were appointed and 551Additional Judges were made permanent in the High Courts. Sanctioned strength of Judges of High Courts has been increased from 906 in May, 2014 to 1098 currently. Sanctioned and working strength of Judicial Officers in District and Subordinate Courts has increased as follows:
As on Sanctioned Strength Working Strength
31.12.2013 19,518 15,115
29.07.2021 24,368 19,259
Filling up of vacancies in Subordinate judiciary falls within the domain of the State Governments and High Courts concerned.
(iv) Reduction in Pendency through / follow up by Arrears Committees: In pursuance of resolution passed in Chief Justices’ Conference held in April, 2015, Arrears Committees have been set up in High Courts to clear cases pending for more than five years. Arrears Committees have been set up under District Judges too. Arrears Committee has been constituted in the Supreme Court to formulate steps to reduce pendency of cases in High Courts and District Courts.
Further Communications have been addressed by Minister of Law & Justice to Chief Justices of High Courts and to Chief Ministers on 20.06.2014 and 14.08.2018 drawing their attention to cases pending for more than five years and to take up pendency reduction campaign.
(v) Emphasis on Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR): Commercial Courts Act, 2015 (as amended on 20th August, 2018) stipulates mandatory pre-institution mediation and settlement of commercial disputes. Amendment to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been made by the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act 2015 for expediting the speedy resolution of disputes by prescribing timelines.
(vi) Initiatives to Fast Track Special Type of Cases: The Fourteenth Finance Commission endorsed the proposal of the Government to strengthen the judicial system in States which included, inter-alia, establishing Fast Track Courts for cases of heinous crimes; cases involving senior citizens, women, children etc., and urged the State Governments to use the additional fiscal space provided in the form of enhanced tax devolution form 32% to 42% to meet such requirements. As on 30.04.2021, 870 Fast Track Courts are functional for heinous crimes, crimes against women and children etc. To fast track criminal cases involving elected MPs / MLAs, ten (10) Special Courts are functional in nine (9) States/UTs (1 each in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and 2 in NCT of Delhi). Further, Government has approved a scheme for setting up 1023 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) across the country for expeditious disposal of pending cases of Rape under IPC and crimes under POCSO Act. As on date, 28 States/UTs have joined the scheme for setting up of 842 FTSCs including 363 ‘exclusive POCSO Courts’. Rs.140 crore was released in the financial year 2019-20 and Rs. 160.00 crore has been released during the financial year 2020-21 for the scheme. Rs. 39.77 crore has been released till June 2021 for Financial Year 2021-22. 640 FTSCs are functional including 338 exclusive POCSO Courts, which disposed 50484 cases as on 31.05.2021.
(vii) In addition, to reduce pendency and unclogging of the courts the Government has recently amended various laws like the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Commercial Courts (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Specific Relief (Amendment) Act, 2018, the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2018.
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Annexure-I
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) & (B) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2569 FOR ANSWER ON 04.08.2021 REGARDING PENDING COURT CASES
Sl.No. High Court Name Pendency as on 29.07.2021
1. Allahabad High Court 799139
2. Bombay High Court 559314
3. Calcutta High Court 268476
4. Gauhati High Court 53570
5. High Court for state of Telangana 247976
6. High Court of Andhra Pradesh 215093
7. High Court of Chhattisgarh 77840
8. High Court of Delhi 101658
9. High Court of Gujarat 151022
10. High Court of Himachal Pradesh 79832
11. High Court for Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh 53462
12. High Court of Jharkhand 86229
13. High Court of Karnataka 283240
14. High Court of Kerala 221248
15. High Court of Madhya Pradesh 404250
16. High Court of Manipur 4685
17. High Court of Meghalaya 1382
18. High Court of Punjab & Haryana 698588
19. High Court of Rajasthan 554343
20. High Court of Sikkim 221
21. High Court of Tripura 1508
22. High Court of Uttarakhand 40814
23. Madras High Court 582599
24. Orissa High Court 175710
25. Patna High Court 214433
Total 5876632
Source: National Judicial Data Grid.
Annexure-II
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) & (B) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2569 FOR ANSWER ON 04.08.2021 REGARDING PENDING COURT CASES
Sl.No. State/UT Pendency as on 29.07.2021
1. Andhra Pradesh 7,10,627
2. Arunachal Pradesh* ----
3. Assam 3,78,101
4. Bihar 33,15,499
5. Chandigarh 64,397
6. Chhattisgarh 3,58,540
7. Delhi 10,48,718
8. Diu and Daman 2,994
9. DNH at Silvasa 3,591
10. Goa 59,998
11. Gujarat 20,38,575
12. Haryana 12,27,281
13. Himachal Pradesh 4,51,778
14. Jammu and Kashmir 2,45,039
15. Jharkhand 4,78,545
16. Karnataka 19,49,413
17. Kerala 19,89,297
18. Ladakh 833
19. Lakshadweep* ----
20. Madhya Pradesh 17,55,610
21. Maharashtra 49,20,820
22. Manipur 11,916
23. Meghalaya 10,823
24. Mizoram 4,961
25. Nagaland 2,489
26. Odisha 14,62,304
27. Puducherry 34,456
28. Punjab 9,18,667
29. Rajasthan 19,62,887
30. Sikkim 1,853
31. Tamil Nadu 12,95,249
32. Telangana 7,51,958
33. Tripura 41,680
34. Uttar Pradesh 90,65,145
35. Uttarakhand 2,84,535
36. Andaman and Nicobar* ----
37. West Bengal 24,82,373
Total 3,93,30,952
Source: National Judicial Data Grid.
*Data in respect of Andaman & Nicobar Island, Lakshadweep and Arunachal Pradesh are not available on the web-portal of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).