NEW DELHI: For the first time, as many as four states and a Union Territory have managed to bring down cases pending for over 10 years in their subordinate courts to almost zero. It’s not a mean achievement, considering that decade-old cases in the country account for 23 lakh, or almost 9% of all cases pending in the subordinate courts.
Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Chandigarh are the five where the justice delivery system has picked up pace and courts have managed to dispose of almost all cases pending for a decade or more.
Five other states — Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra and Karnataka — are not too far behind and have brought down pendency of 10-year-old cases to almost 1% of their total pending cases.
This data, however, does not include cases pending in the Supreme Court or high courts.
There are 2.54 crore cases pending in around 17,000 subordinate courts across the country, of which 22.76 lakh cases have been pending for more than 10 years, according to latest statistics from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).
Some states like Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Delhi have a large number of pending cases. That these states have managed to dispose of nearly all cases older than 10 years shows the efficiency of judges in these states and the proactive measures adopted by the government and the HCs in making the justice delivery system responsive and effective.
Huge pendency in courts has resulted in a large number of undertrials languishing in jails for longer than the sentence they would have served if convicted. According to the government’s estimates, two-thirds of the country’s prison population comprises undertrials, a reflection of the decayed system that has failed to harness technology to speed up the justice delivery mechanism.
Yet, some states seem to have overcome these challenges, revamped their prosecution system, adopted good practices and carried out automation in court procedures to make a difference while some others continue to struggle. For instance, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal are still bogged down by huge pendency, including cases older than 10 years.
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