ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE FOR LAW AND JUSTICE AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS
(SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)
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(a) to (c) : Data on the pendency of cases in courts is maintained by the Supreme Court and High Courts. As per information available on the web-portal of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), 2.60 crore cases were pending in various District and Subordinate Courts of the country (excluding District and Subordinate Courts in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Union Territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry) as on 22.12.2017. As per the Constitutional framework, the selection and appointment of judges in subordinate courts is the responsibility of State Governments and the High Courts concerned. As per information made available by the High Courts and respective State Governments, as on 30.11.2017, the sanctioned strength of Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts is 22,677, and the number of Judicial Officers in position and vacant posts are 16,693 and 5,984 (26.38%), respectively. The Supreme Court has devised a process and time schedule to be followed for the filling up of vacancies in lower judiciary. The order of Supreme Court dated January 4 , 2007 stated that the process for recruitment of judges in the subordinate courts would commence on March 31 of a calendar year and end by October 31 of the same year. The Supreme Court has permitted State Governments/ High Courts to seek variations in the time schedule in case of any difficulty having regard to the peculiar geographical and climatic conditions in the State or other relevant conditions. The details of State / UT – wise pending cases are given in a Statement at Annexure – I. The details of Vacancies of Judges / Judicial Officers in the District and Subordinate Courts are given in a Statement at Annexure – II.
(d) & (e): The 11th Finance Commission had recommended a scheme for creation of Fast Track Courts in the country for a period of five years upto 2004-05 for disposal of long pending cases and the cases involving undertrial prisoners. Later, the scheme was continued upto 31st March, 2011. Subsequently, the 14th Finance Commission has endorsed the proposal to strengthen the judicial system in States which includes, inter-alia, establishing 1800 Fast Track Courts for a period of five years for cases of heinous crimes; cases involving senior citizens, women, children, disabled and litigants affected with HIV AIDS and other terminal ailments; and civil disputes involving land acquisition and property / rent disputes pending for more than five years at a cost of Rs.4,144 crore. The 14th Finance Commission has urged State Governments to use the additional fiscal space provided by the 14th Finance Commission in the tax devolution for this purpose.
The 13th Finance Commission had recommended the establishment of Morning / Evening / Shift Courts, and these courts were, accordingly established by various State Governments including the State of Gujarat during the 13th Finance Commission Award period. However, the amount allocated for these courts could not be utilised fully by the States due to (i) Resistance from Bar Associations, (ii) Geographical & local constraints particularly in the North-Eastern States; and (iii) Non-availability of Judicial Officers of appropriate status for these courts etc.
(f) : Data on the pendency of cases in courts is maintained by the Supreme Court and High Courts. As per information available on the web-portal of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), the details of court cases related to women as on 22.12.2017 are given in Statement at Annexure – III.
(g) : It may be mentioned that 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 a total of Rs. 6,006 crore has been released since 1993-94, out of which Rs. 2,562 crore (42.66%) has been released since April 2014. 17,848 Court Halls and 14,085 Residential Accommodations have been made available for Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts under this scheme as on 30.11.2017. Out of this 2,429 Court Halls and 4,172 Residential Accommodations were constructed since 2014 to till date. In addition, 3,143 Court Halls and 1,682 Residential Accommodations are under construction. The Central Government has approved the 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 software 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.
The Central Government has approved Phase II of the eCourts Mission Mode Project in July, 2015 upto 31 March 2019 at an outlay of Rs.1,670 crores. 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 500 courts and corresponding prisons during the period 2015-17 for faster and timely recording of evidence. Development of National Judicial Data Grid under this project provides updated information on civil and criminal cases, including pending cases, for the computerised district/subordinate courts in the country.
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Annexure-I
Statement referred to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1417 for reply on 27th December, 2017
Details of Pending Cases in District & Subordinate Courts as on 22.12.2017 (NJDG)
S. No. Name of State/UTs Total Cases pending as on 22.12.2017
1 Uttar Pradesh 61,49,151
2 Maharashtra 33,20,847
3 West Bengal 17,59,144
4 Bihar 16,64,502
5 Gujarat 16,48,457
6 Rajasthan 14,18,958
7 Karnataka 13,70,671
8 Madhya Pradesh 13,13,010
9 Kerala 11,47,116
10 Orissa 10,19,392
11 Tamil Nadu 10,06,726
12 Haryana 6,43,711
13 Delhi 6,06,451
14 Punjab 5,63,309
15 Andhra Pradesh 4,94,712
16 Telangana 4,13,962
17 Jharkhand 3,33,965
18 Chhattisgarh 2,70,681
19 Assam 2,34,487
20 Uttarakhand 2,10,762
21 Himachal Pradesh 2,09,783
22 Jammu And Kashmir 1,22,127
23 Goa 39,640
24 Chandigarh 38,270
25 Tripura 25,191
26 Andaman And Nicobar 11,185
27 Manipur 9,584
28 Meghalaya 7,027
29 Dadra and Nagar Haveli 3,545
30 Mizoram 3,306
31 Diu And Daman 1,737
32 Sikkim 1,442
Total Pending Cases 2,60,62,851
Note: Data on pending cases not available on NJDG in respect of State / UTs of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Lakshdweep and Puducherry.
Data Source : NJDG web-portal.
Annexure – II
Statement referred to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1417 for reply on 27th December, 2017.
Vacancies of Judges / Judicial Officers in the District and Subordinate Courts
Sl. No States Vacancies as on 30.11.2017
1 Uttar Pradesh 1,344
2 Bihar** 825
3 Madhya Pradesh 748
4 Gujarat** 385
5 Tamil Nadu* 341
6 Karnataka** 325
7 Delhi** 316
8 Jharkhand** 251
9 Orissa 204
10 Maharashtra 149
11 Haryana 147
12 Punjab 136
13 Andhra Pradesh & Telangana** 114
14 Rajasthan** 96
15 West Bengal and A & N Island** 84
16 Assam 76
17 Kerala** 73
18 Chhattisgarh 63
19 Uttarakhand** 61
20 Meghalaya 58
21 Jammu & Kashmir 39
22 Mizoram 33
23 Tripura 31
24 Manipur 18
25 Pondicherry* 14
26 Goa 12
27 Arunachal Pradesh 11
28 Nagaland 11
29 Himachal Pradesh** 10
30 Sikkim** 8
31 Lakshadweep** 1
32 Chandigarh 0
33 D & N Haveli AND Daman & Diu** 0
Total 5,984
* as on 7.11.2017
**as on 31.10.2017
Data Source : High Courts / State Governments.
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Annexure – III
Statement referred to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1417 for reply on 27th December, 2017.
Details of Court cases related to women pending in District and Subordinate Courts as on 22.12.2017
S. No. Name of State/UTs Total
1 Uttar Pradesh 6,43,787
2 Maharashtra 3,11,315
3 Bihar 2,43,987
4 West Bengal 1,95,164
5 Karnataka 1,74,423
6 Tamil Nadu 1,41,637
7 Rajasthan 1,26,116
8 Madhya Pradesh 1,24,855
9 Punjab 84,672
10 Andhra Pradesh 79,813
11 Haryana 78,624
12 Kerala 78,144
13 Orissa 76,655
14 Gujarat 67,952
15 Telangana 57,438
16 Jharkhand 41,255
17 Delhi 40,618
18 Assam 28,588
19 Himachal Pradesh 25,155
20 Chhattisgarh 22,951
21 Uttarakhand 10,150
22 Jammu And Kashmir 9,803
23 Goa 5,652
24 Chandigarh 5,206
25 Tripura 3,336
26 Manipur 1,806
27 Andaman And Nicobar 1,246
28 Meghalaya 913
29 Mizoram 340
30 Dadra and Nagar Haveli 156
31 Diu And Daman 132
32 Sikkim 127
Total Cases Filed By Female 26,82,016
Data Source : NJDG web-portal.
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