ANSWER
MINISTER OF LAW & JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) to (f): Data on institution, disposal and pendency of cases in the Supreme Court and High Courts is maintained by the Supreme Court and High Courts respectively. As per information made available by the Supreme Court of India, the total number of pending cases in the Supreme Court is 55,892. As per information available on the web-portal of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), 42.69 lakh cases are pending in various High Courts, out of which 10.11 lakh cases are pending for more than ten years. High Court-wise details (Civil and Criminal) of pending cases including cases pending for more than ten years are given in a Statement at Annexure – I. 2.60 crore cases are pending in various District and Subordinate courts of the country (excluding State / Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Lakshadweep and Puducherry), out of which 25.79 lakh cases are pending for more than the ten years. State / UT – wise details (Civil and Criminal) of pending cases including cases pending for more than ten years are given in Annexure -II. The information about number of cases disposed by these courts each of the last three years and the current year is not available on the web-portal of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).
Some of the main factors responsible for pendency of cases in courts are increasing number of state and central legislations, accumulation of first appeals, continuation of ordinary civil jurisdiction in some of the High Courts, vacancies of Judges, appeals against orders of quasi-judicial forums going to High Courts, number of revisions / appeals, frequent adjournments, indiscriminate use of writ jurisdiction, lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing.
In pursuance of resolution passed in the Chief Justices’ Conference held in April, 2015, 24 High Courts have set up Arrears Committees to clear the backlog of cases pending for more than five years. The Supreme Court has also constituted an Arrears Committee consisting of two Hon’ble Judges to formulate steps to reduce pendency of cases in High Courts and District Courts. At district level, the District Judge holds monthly meeting of all judicial officers to monitor progress made in reduction of long pending cases.
The Central Government is fully committed to assisting the judiciary to enable speedy disposal of cases. It has undertaken many steps towards achieving this objective. A series of measures have been taken to enable the expeditious disposal of civil cases. These include relevant amendments to the Civil Procedure Code to impose limit on the number of adjournments that may be granted to each party to three times and imposition of costs for adjournments; allowing service of summons using email, fax, speed post, courier services or directly through the plaintiff; providing for dismissal of suit where summons are not served in consequence of plaintiff’s failure to pay costs; and limiting the time limit for filing of written statement by the defendant.
Necessary amendments have been made to Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 to make the award within 12 months, to resolve the dispute through fast track procedure, to ensure neutrality of arbitrators, and to restrict the term ‘Public Policy of India’ as a ground for challenging the award. Further, in March, 2018, the Union Cabinet has approved the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2018 for introduction in the Parliament, which seeks to facilitate speedy appointment of arbitrators through designated arbitral institutions by the Supreme Court or High Courts.
With a view to address the issue of faster resolution of matters relating to commercial disputes, the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 was enacted and commercial courts were established at District Levels in all jurisdictions, except in the territories over which the High Courts have original ordinary civil jurisdiction i.e. the High Courts of Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras and of Himachal Pradesh. The specified value of such commercial disputes to be adjudicated by the Commercial Courts or the Commercial Division of High Court, as the case may be, is presently Rs.1 crore.
Further, in March, 2018, the Union Cabinet has approved the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018 for introduction in the Parliament, which seeks to reduce the specified value of a commercial dispute to Rs.3 lakh from the present Rs.1 crore, and provide for establishment of Commercial Courts at district Judge level for the territories over which respective High Courts have ordinary original civil jurisdiction i.e. in the cities of Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and State of Himachal Pradesh.
In order to strengthen judicial infrastructure in districts through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary wherein a total of Rs. 6,100 crore has been released since 1993-94, out of which Rs. 2,655 crore (43.52%) has been released since April, 2014. 17,986 Court Halls and 14,986 Residential Accommodations have been made available for Judicial Officers of District and Subordinate Courts as on date. In addition, 3,151 Court Halls and 1,785 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 (2010-15) of the eCourts Mission Mode Project undertaken by the Central Government, 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.
A budget outlay of Rs.1,670 crores was approved for the Phase II of the eCourts Mission Mode Project (from July, 2015 upto 31 March 2019). 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 district and subordinate 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.
Lok Adalats are playing an important role in disposing of pending cases in the country. A total number of 140.64 lakh pending cases have been settled by National Lok Adalats during the last three calendar years i.e. 2015, 2016 and 2017. In addition, Regular Lok Adalats have also settled a total number of 83.60 lakh pending cases during the last three years i.e. 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 (upto December, 2017).
Lok Adalats are organised in accordance with the provisions of Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. National and Regular Lok Adalats deal with pending cases. National Lok Adalats are held on bi-monthly basis whereas Regular Lok Adalats are held on weekly / monthly basis on court holidays / weekends. At present, Lok Adalats starting from Supreme Court to Taluk level courts are held in the existing infrastructure available in courts. Permanent Lok Adalats, as provided under section 22 B of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, deal with pre-litigative cases and disputes related to public utility services on a regular basis. The Lok Adalats are organised as per a pre-decided calendar throughout the year.
In the Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices held in April, 2016, it was resolved that the existing judicial infrastructure of the state judiciaries be utilized for setting up Morning / Evening or Holiday Courts, as the case may be, utilizing the services of retired Judges. These courts may be constituted to deal with cases relating to petty offences, such as traffic cases and legal aid cases at the discretion of the High Court. It was further resolved in the conference that Chief Ministers and Chief Justices shall, for their respective States, decide upon norms for payment of salaries and allowances to the retired Judges manning these courts. These courts are held as per requirements in any state, and on orders of the related High Courts.
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 Mitra’s have been engaged.
************
Annexure - I
Statement referred to in reply of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 6003 for Reply on 04th April, 2018.
Number of Pending Cases and Number of Pending cases for more than Ten Years in High Courts.
Sr. No. High Court Name Total Number of Cases Pending Total Number of Cases Pending over Ten Years
Civil Criminal Writs Total Civil Criminal Writs Total
1. Allahabad High Court 153725 301891 250958 706574 65133 111711 90809 267653
2. Calcutta High Court 106717 43284 85203 235204 52034 16807 24410 93251
3. Gauhati High Court 12578 6871 15574 35023 231 33 27 291
4. High Court of Bombay 302656 50704 110714 464074 107608 15115 22702 145425
5. High Court of Chhattisgarh 37253 23899 0 61152 3171 3840 0 7011
6. High Court of Delhi 29879 18812 21057 69748 3083 2638 3150 8871
7. High Court of Gujarat 43069 32527 34113 109709 7052 6934 3046 17032
8. High Court of Himachal Pradesh 24505 6059 5419 35983 1238 224 77 1539
9. High Court of Jammu and Kashmir 76393 8274 0 84667 8741 428 0 9169
10. High Court of Jharkhand 46314 43685 0 89999 4628 10853 0 15481
11. High Court of Karnataka 118262 30943 68113 217318 5314 15 891 6220
12. High Court of Kerala 79647 38157 65687 183491 10228 8434 1335 19997
13. High Court of Madhya Pradesh 105694 118437 89236 313367 24724 29334 11544 65602
14. High Court of Manipur 15074 1549 0 16623 3874 345 0 4219
15. High Court of Meghalaya 316 39 621 976 0 0 1 1
16. High Court of Punjab and Haryana 197422 119379 72702 389503 69677 16475 22339 108491
17. High Court of Rajasthan 84825 71870 103799 260494 23509 26151 20533 70193
18. High Court of Sikkim 54 63 104 221
19. High Court of Tripura 1025 458 1522 3005 1 0 2 3
20. High Court of Uttarakhand 10258 10267 15470 35995 1754 1617 2520 5891
21. Madras High Court 128196 42105 144044 314345 30785 3078 17181 51044
22. Orissa High Court 43258 44112 83895 171265 14822 9409 14859 39090
23. Patna High Court 29615 55796 60979 146390 7201 13669 2739 23609
24. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Court 107804 46325 170410 324539 26191 2963 22431 51585
Total Pending Cases 1754539 1115506 1399620 4269665 470999 280073 260596 1011668
Source: NJDG
*************
Annexure - II
Statement referred to in reply of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 6003 for Reply on 04th April, 2018.
Number of Pending Cases and Number of Pending cases for more than Ten Years in District and Subordinate Courts.
Sr. Name of State / UT Total Number of Cases Pending Number of Cases Pending over Ten Years
No. Civil Criminal Total Civil Criminal Total
1. Andaman And Nicobar 3296 7889 11185 184 695 879
2. Andhra Pradesh 286741 221744 508485 4882 1669 6551
3. Assam 58507 176217 234724 1044 1610 2654
4. Bihar 254200 1452554 1706754 37698 233619 271317
5. Chandigarh 16575 23926 40501 23 23 46
6. Chhattisgarh 57533 210446 267979 1940 3765 5705
7. Delhi 182427 466235 648662 1070 4176 5246
8. Diu and Daman 957 850 1807 13 35 48
9. Dadra and Nagar Haveli 1429 2059 3488 33 299 332
10. Goa 21674 19444 41118 1799 86 1885
11. Gujarat 511161 1041926 1553087 73011 158023 231034
12. Haryana 261858 393228 655086 433 150 583
13. Himachal Pradesh 103579 111947 215526 526 254 780
14. Jammu And Kashmir 56636 62013 118649 2014 1946 3960
15. Jharkhand 55521 276156 331677 4862 6671 11533
16. Karnataka 662992 745295 1408287 17595 12108 29703
17. Kerala 370434 842991 1213425 4465 4063 8528
18. Madhya Pradesh 307400 1048693 1356093 5258 9529 14787
19. Maharashtra 1137033 2251492 3388525 57300 197130 254430
20. Manipur 5572 4415 9987 100 356 456
21. Meghalaya 2102 4792 6894 273 482 755
22. Mizoram 1432 2268 3700 32 4 36
23. Odisa 244798 795867 1040665 23362 148607 171969
24. Punjab 248272 342136 590408 624 627 1251
25. Rajasthan 399917 1051400 1451317 24804 47950 72754
26. Sikkim 617 917 1534 2 0 2
27. Tamil Nadu 583631 437364 1020995 20280 19589 39869
28. Telangana 201641 230867 432508 10628 4634 15262
29. Tripura 8069 16570 24639 103 2706 2809
30. Uttar Pradesh 1388759 4317273 5706032 232569 961872 1194441
31. Uttarakhand 33092 181586 214678 985 3402 4387
32. West Bengal 477396 1334009 1811405 53013 172943 225956
Total Pending Cases 7945251 18074569 26019820 580925 1999023 2579948
Source: NJDG
Data in respect of the States of Arunachal Pradesh & Nagaland and Union Territories of Lakshadweep & Puducherry are not available on the website of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).
***************
Download PDF Files
