Indian Judiciary Report 2015-16 [Part II]: Pendency and vacancies in high courts and lower courts

Last week, we had published an article covering facts and figures pertaining to the Supreme Court of India for 2015-16. The information was compiled from the annual report published on the Supreme Court’s website. In Part II, we delve into the state of the country’s High Courts and the lower judiciary, specifically with regard to each court’s annual budget, pendency figures and vacancies..1. Budget for 2016-17.We had earlier reported that the 14th Finance Commission had allocated a handsome sum of Rs. 9,749 crore to the judiciary for five years. Out of this, a total of Rs. 3,452.39 crore has been earmarked for 2016-17 alone..Here is a court-wise breakup of this figure:.High CourtBudget for 2016-17Allahabad450.3Bombay234.9Calcutta128.2Chhattisgarh51.3Delhi271.08Gauhati21.5Gujarat167.9Himachal Pradesh45.4AP & Telangana252.1Jammu & Kashmir35.4Jharkhand66.8Karnataka111.3Kerala105.8Madhya Pradesh117.1Madras160.3Manipur14.6Meghalaya9.5Orissa117.6Patna111.5Punjab & Haryana271.6Rajasthan630.01Sikkim11.8Tripura14.1Uttarakhand52.3TOTAL3,452.39.As is evident above, the state of Rajasthan is allocated a whopping 630 crore, more than the budget of any other state for this year. Uttar Pradesh, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Allahabad High Court, is allocated 450 crore. The states of Punjab and Haryana, as well as the National Capital Region of Delhi have been allocated around 270 crore..2. Pendency in High Courts.In the annual report, the pendency figures for various high courts have been calculated from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. The total number of cases pending in the twenty-four high courts across the country as of the latter date is more than forty lac..High CourtInstitutionDisposalPendencyAllahabad2,80,3592,79,3429,24,488Bombay1,19,8981,04,0952,98,263Calcutta66,34071,8302,13,514Chhattisgarh33,17425,19454,094Delhi45,12249,58465,161Gauhati26,99023,16547,085Gujarat85,11888,51592,396Himachal Pradesh12,25613,75325,784AP & Telangana89,50872,9612,78,695Jammu & Kashmir30,57826,2481,28,076Jharkhand25,66724,53168,989Karnataka1,65,1911,34,8732,56,509Kerala90,02485,1661,61,052Madhya Pradesh1,38,7621,19,7462,83,119Madras1,83,5611,60,0333,02,846Manipur1,3881,3033,161Meghalaya726583672Orissa71,04571,3681,70,834Patna92,66995,0171,30,605Punjab & Haryana1,28,9131,33,7932,88,928Rajasthan90,70877,1782,26,651Sikkim196172129Tripura2,5914,7442,987Uttarakhand18,20212,91630,538TOTAL40,54,576.A total of 9.24 lac cases are pending in the Allahabad High Court alone, more than three times the number of cases pending in the Madras High Court, which is at 3.02..The high courts of Bombay, Punjab & Haryana and Madhya Pradesh are not far behind, with 2.98 lakh, 2.88 lakh and 2.83 lakh pending cases respectively..3. Pendency in the subordinate judiciary.There were a total of 2.81 crore cases pending in various lower courts across the country, as of July 2016. Add this number to the number of cases pending in the high courts, and you get a total sum of 3.21 crore pending cases..JurisdictionInstitutionDisposalPendencyAllahabad37,28,07534,83,21858,88,564Bombay24,17,69122,31,43331,80,885Calcutta11,73,22410,69,87826,95,469Chhattisgarh2,03,0572,04,6472,82,922Delhi6,95,9636,45,3305,98,135Gauhati2,99,4833,06,1332,73,795Gujarat10,99,73712,35,82320,56,231Himachal Pradesh3,25,7893,35,1102,38,027AP & Telangana6,64,4866,56,92610,56,171Jammu & Kashmir1,57,1271,36,4831,41,910Jharkhand1,24,0111,05,8763,34,609Karnataka12,18,54411,39,31613,32,016Kerala13,62,09012,81,04714,65,404Madhya Pradesh11,59,80011,28,72412,37,705Madras11,90,03111,62,27411,13,289Manipur5,8595,0387,667Meghalaya15,86316,73814,256Orissa4,33,4674,16,19511,33,577Patna4,22,1633,34,87520,88,527Punjab & Haryana13,63,13113,09,17911,29,578Rajasthan14,34,90813,22,58015,33,740Sikkim1,9781,7791,319Tripura2,27,6202,05,6971,39,470Uttarakhand1,97,8921,69,9231,81,800TOTAL2,81,25,066.It is little wonder that the most populous state, Uttar Pradesh has the most cases pending in its lower courts, at over 58 lakh cases..Areas under the jurisdiction of the Bombay High Court are next, with 31.8 lakh cases, followed by the region over which the Calcutta High Court exercises jurisdiction, which has 26.9 lakh pending cases..Courts in the states of Bihar and Gujarat are not far behind, having pending cases to the the tune of around 20 lakh..4. Vacancies in the Subordinate Judiciary.With the recent retirement of Justice TS Thakur, the Supreme Court of India was left with eight vacancies. As per the latest Department of Justice statistics, there are 430 vacancies across the high courts in the country..But a number that does not get as much attention is the number of judicial posts lying vacant in the subordinate judiciary. As per the report, there are a total of 4,905 vacancies as against a sanctioned strength of 21,324 posts. In other words, a little over 23% of the posts in the lower courts are lying vacant as of July 2016..JurisdictionSanctioned StrengthVacanciesAllahabad2,394624Bombay2,321240Calcutta1,01374Chhattisgarh39555Delhi793307Gauhati537148Gujarat 1,953794Himachal Pradesh15517AP & Telangana975169Jammu & Kashmir24526Jharkhand671214Karnataka1,294367Kerala46689Madhya Pradesh1,461202Madras1,05891Manipur4411Meghalaya5716Orissa716104Patna1,825792Punjab & Haryana1,348264Rajasthan1,199210Sikkim184Tripura10629Uttarakhand28058TOTAL21,324 4,905.Analysis.Using the aforementioned numbers, we thought it would be interesting to compare the pendency of each high court jurisdiction with the funds allocated to it for 2016-17. Here is an analysis of ten such high courts..High CourtAllotment out of total budget Pendency (including subordinate courts)% of total pendencyAllahabad13.04%68.1 lakh21.21%Bombay6.8%34.7 lakh10.8%Calcutta3.7%29.08 lakh9.06%Delhi7.8%6.6 lakh2.06%Gujarat4.9%21.5 lakh6.7%AP & Telangana7.3%13.3 lakh4.1%Karnataka3.2%15.8 lakh4.9%Madras4.6%14.2 lakh4.4%Punjab & Haryana7.8%14.2 lakh4.4%Rajasthan18.2%17.6 lakh5.5%.The state of Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for more than 21% of the total pending cases in the country, is allocated 13.04% of the total budget for this year. While there may be a direct co-relation between budget and pendency in this instance, the same cannot be said of other high courts..For example, in Rajasthan, which has the lion’s share of the budget (18%), there are only 5.5% of the total pending cases in the country..Official data regarding pendency of cases in Indian courts has thus far been extremely difficult to come by. Organisations like DAKSH had earlier taken the initiative to gauge these figures, and the National Judicial Data Grid introduced in 2015, has certainly helped things..Now that the data is available, it will perhaps be easier to pinpoint the real reasons behind the massive pendency in our courts.