(a) whether any study/assessment has been made about the average time taken for disposal of cases by various courts in the country, category-wise;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the courts in the country are taking a longer period of time in disposing the cases when compared to the courts in the developed countries; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF LAW & JUSTICE AND COMMUNICATIONS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a)to(d) The Government is not aware of any formal empirical study / assessment having been made about average time taken for disposal of category-wise cases by various courts in the country. The actual 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.
It may not be valid to compare the time taken for disposal of cases by courts in the country with the time taken by courts in the developed countries. The courts in various countries operate in different environment on account of difference in availability of infrastructure facilities, use of technology, number of judicial officers per million of population (judge-population ratio), docket ratio (population case filing ratio), provisions of substantive laws and procedures in courts.