In a written reply, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said while more than 4.44 crore cases were pending in various lower courts as on January 1, the number went up to over 4.53 crore — an increase of 9.22 lakh — as on November 15.
In another reply, the law minister told the Upper House that the subordinate and district judiciary was facing a shortage of 5,245 judicial officers.
According to data shared by the government, citing figures on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), of the 4.53 crore cases pending as on November 15, the number of civil cases stood at 1.10 crore.
The number of criminal cases pending stood at 3.43 crore.
Earlier, as per data from the NJDG, approximately 2.45 lakh cases, over 20 and some even 30 years old, were still pending in high courts.
Union Law Minister Meghwal had stated that, upon examination of many of the pending cases, it had been found that the reason they are often not taken forward is due to the involved stakeholders or parties being either absent or uninterested in continuing the case. As a result, unresolved cases keep on adding up as a backlog.
According to the minister, 25 to 30% of these types of cases can easily be resolved if the appropriate measures are taken by high courts. He added that some measures can include analysing the duration for which certain cases have ‘aged’ and ‘clubbing’ certain cases together to ensure more effective resolution.
Earlier in September this year, while addressing an audience during the National Conference of District Judiciary in New Delhi, President Droupadi Murmu had termed the phenomenon a ‘culture of adjournments’ in the judiciary and demanded change in this matter as well.
