This response came at a time when the total number of pending cases in various courts continues to rise sharply The Centre said there was no proposal under contemplation for fixing deadlines of pending cases in the district courts in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The Minister of Law Arjun Ram Meghwal while replying to a query said, “The disposal of cases or fixing time lines for disposal lies within the exclusive domain of the judiciary and the Central Government has no direct role in the matter.”
This response came at a time when the total number of pending cases in various courts including subordinate courts, High court and Supreme Court crossed the five-crore mark.
HIGH COURTS
The number of pending cases in High Courts in the country stood at 59,78,714 in 2022 from 56,49,068 in the previous year. In the past five year, it increased by 15,29,788 cases in the past years.
The top three High Courts with highest backlog cases were the Allahabad HC with 10.3 lakh cases, Bombay HC at 6.1 lakh and Rajasthan at 6.3 lakh.
The northeastern states accounted for the lowest number of pending cases in HC with 165 in Sikkim, 1,188 in Meghalaya, 1,601 in Tripura.
Against the overall trend of rising pendency, the High Courts of Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Sikkim and Tripura were able to reduce the number of pending cases.
For example, the HC of J&K lowered its count from 64,042 in 2018 to 44,256 in 2022.
The number of pending cases in Kerala HC went from 1.93 lakh to 1.97 lakh in 2018.
Meanwhile, Tripura High Court saw pending cases decline to 1,601 from 2,977 in 2018.
TRIAL COURTS & SUPREME COURT
The number of pending cases in subordinate courts also showed a rising trend. They rose to 4.32 lakh as of the end of last year from 3.34 lakh in 2018.
Meanwhile, the pending cases in the Supreme Court increased to 69,768 by the end of 2022 from 57,346 four years earlier. The SC had the highest number of backlog in 2021 with 70,239 cases.