Question : Time Taken for Disposal of Cases

(a) whether it is true that some high courts are taking up to an average of four years to dispose of cases in the country;
(b) if so, the reasons therefor;
(c) whether the Government has taken note of the fact that the situation is still worse in the subordinate courts in the country;
(d) if so, whether the Government has any proposal to set a time limit for disposal of the cases in all the courts including high courts and subordinate courts; and
(e) if so, the response of the Government in this regard and the steps being taken to address the issue?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE FOR LAW AND JUSTICE AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS
(SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

(a) to (c): Disposal of cases in courts is within the domain of the judiciary. The time taken for disposal of a case depends on several factors such as category of the case (civil or criminal), complexity of the facts involved, nature of evidence, co-operation of stake-holders viz. bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants besides the availability of physical infrastructure, supporting court staff and applicable rules of procedure.

(d) & (e): 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. It has undertaken many steps towards achieving this objective. One of these steps is, strengthening of judicial infrastructure in districts through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary wherein a total of Rs. 6,020 crore has been released since 1993-94, out of which Rs. 2,575 crore (42.77%) has been released since April, 2014. 17,798 Court Halls and 13,759 Residential Accommodations have been made available for Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts as on date. Out of this 1,980 Court Halls and 3,548 Residential Accommodations were constructed since 2014 to till date. In addition, 2,966 Court Halls and 1,692 Residential Accommodations are under construction. The Central Government has approved continuation of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary beyond the 12th Five Year Plan period i.e. from 01.04.2017 to 31.03.2020 with an estimated outlay of Rs.3,320 crore.

Under the Phase-I of the eCourts Mission Mode Project undertaken by the Central Government from 2010 to 2015, against a total target of computerisation of 14,249 courts, the computerisation of 13,672 district and subordinate courts has been achieved. This includes the installation of hardware, the LAN and software. This has enabled the courts to upload the case status and orders online. Status of cases and copies of judgments have also been made available on the websites of the respective District and Subordinate Court Complexes which have been computerised. Rs. 935.00 crore were allocated for Phase – I out of which Rs. 639.41 crore were utilized.

In the Phase II of the eCourts Mission Mode Project (July, 2015 upto 31 March 2019) an outlay of Rs.1,670 crores has been approved and Rs.921.75 crore have been released so far. The facilities of e-services such as cause lists, case status, daily orders, judgments etc. are being provided under the supervision of e-Committee of the Supreme Court and Computer Committees of respective High Courts. A total of 16,089 Courts have been computerised under the eCourts Project till date. Video Conferencing facility has also been opertionalised between 488 court complexes and 342 corresponding prisons during the period 2015-17. The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) developed under this project provides updated information on civil and criminal cases, including pending cases, for the computerised district / subordinate courts in the country.

Another initiative that has been undertaken with a focus to improve access to justice is the Tele Law Scheme launched on 20th April, 2017, which is an effort to provide legal advice pro-actively to the marginalised sections of society through Common Service Centres (CSCs). This initiative facilitates delivery of legal advice through an expert panel of lawyers stationed at the State Legal Service Authorities (SLSA). Under this Scheme, Para Legal Volunteers (PLVs) connect potential litigants with lawyers through video conferencing facilities at CSCs which are, operated by Village Level Entrepreneurs. The Scheme has been launched in 1800 Gram Panchayats in 11 States (U.P., Bihar, J&K, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Sikkim). A total of 12,218 cases have been registered by PLVs under the scheme and legal advice has been provided in 9,094 cases. The Government has also launched a scheme for Pro Bono Legal Services in April, 2017 in which interested lawyers and litigants can register on the website (www.doj.gov.in) to provide and avail pro-bono legal services as may be required. So far, 202 lawyers have registered on the portal and more than 298 cases have been assigned for pro bono assistance. In order to reduce cases pending in courts for over 10 years, the Government has recently introduced Nyaya Mitra Scheme covering 227 selected districts of 16 States. Under the Scheme, retired judicial officers are engaged and designated as ‘Nyaya Mitra’ to facilitate expeditious disposal of the cases pending over 10 years. In the first Phase, 15 Nyaya Mitras have been engaged.
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