January 07, 2002
‘7’
EXPEDITING DISPOSAL OF PENDING CASES
The Government and the Judiciary have endeavoured constantly to bring improvements in the functioning of the courts with a view to simplifying procedures and delivering cost effective and speedy justice. The Government has also been reviewing regularly the accumulation of arrears in courts. There are 2.39 crore cases pending in various courts of the country comprising the Supreme Court of India, all the 21 High Courts and 12800 Subordinate Courts in the country. Besides increasing the judge strength from time to time, the Government has set up and encouraged alternative modes of dispute resolution including conciliation, mediation and arbitration. Special tribunals like Central Administrative Tribunal, State Administrative Tribunals, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Labour Courts, Consumer Courts and various other tribunals have been set up to expedite disposal of cases. Added to these, information technology is being used in generation of cause list, providing information to the litigants and advocates for speedy disposal of cases.
Fast Track Courts have been set up for quick disposal of long pending cases, particularly sessions cases and cases involving undertrials in jails. All the Central Ministries and Departments have been advised to take necessary steps like review of laws administered by them, filing of counter affidavits in time and avoidance of unnecessary adjournments in cases where they are a party.
In most of the criminal cases in the district and subordinate courts and in a considerable number of cases in the High Courts and the Supreme Court, the Government is necessarily a party.
The increase in number of pending cases in different tiers of judiciary is due to various factors like non-filling up of the posts of judges and judicial officers and adjournment of cases due to absence of lawyers. There are other factors also for pendency of cases which include increased institution of cases on account of growing awareness of rights on the part of the citizens, rise in population, increased industrial and business activity, socio-economic developments, legislative and administrative aspects touching on the life of the citizens of all levels, tendency of litigants and lawyers strike. In addition, strikes by the courts’ staff and transfer of judicial officers also impact the pendency of cases.