Pending Litigations – 2010 tally from 31 crore to 32 crore cases

The recent release of the Supreme Court news on the update of pending cases and vacancies in Indian courts is not an appealing picture. The pendency of cases continues to be on a rising spree. The report discloses pendency in cases up to October 31, 2010 and leaves much room for doubt as to the real number at the end of December 31, 2010..The recent release of the Supreme Court news on the update of pending cases and vacancies in Indian courts is not an appealing picture. The pendency of cases continues to be on a rising spree. The report discloses pendency in cases up to October 31, 2010 and leaves much room for doubt as to the real number at the end of December 31, 2010..Pending Cases:.*Statistics as of October 31, 2010 **Statistics as of June 30, 2010.Vacancies have been looked at, at the Supreme Court with a decline in the number of vacancies from 4 judges in 2009 to want of 2 judges in 2010. But the High Courts and Lower Courts continue to see a downfall in filling judges..Vacancies in the courts:.*Statistics as of October 31, 2010 **Statistics as of June 30, 2010.At the High Court level and the Lower Courts, Uttar Pradesh, with nearly 20 percent of India’s population, is the single largest contributor to the backlog of cases in the country. Sikkim contributed the least amongst all states to the backlog statistics with 1,278 cases in the High Court and 79 cases in the lower court. Here is a State wise statistics of the pending cases. .State wise pending cases:.*Total Pending cases as of June 30, 2010.BHC-Bombay High Court.CHC- Calcutta High Court.GHC- Guwahati High Court.KHC- Kerala High Court.P&H HC- Punjab & Haryana High Court.Minister of Law and Justice in an exclusive interview with the Bar & Bench, spoke on reducing the pendency of proceedings and on appointment of judges and said, “No litigation should be pending for more than three years. I have worked out a number of programmes which includes a provision of a grant of Rs. 5,000 crore (by the 13th Finance Commission) for the reforms, mainly in relation to the method and technology, and an additional provision of Rs. 935 crore for the E-Courts (computerization of courts) which will include the Paperless Courts and the Technological Courts. The idea is to make litigation speedy and cost effective and also, to make the courts technology centric where transparency becomes the highlight”..“I have also operationalised the Gram Nyayalayas Act which has become operational from October 2, 2009. The basic highlight of the Gram Nyayalaya Act is that it shall dispose of the case (criminal/civil) within a period of six months, from the date of its filing. That’s the mandate of the law. We have also narrated which of the Acts are to be governed, and if the State Government’s chooses to do so they can establish Gram Nyayalayas after consultation with the respective High Court. Ultimately, we are giving this grant for a five year period (2010-2015) and when the Courts come into full-play after the establishment of 5,000 Courts at the intermediary level of panchayat then 50 percent of the arrears will be reduced”..“We have also worked out the National Litigation Policy. The Government as a State, or national litigation is occupying a major space in the judiciary and if they are reduced to at least 30 percent, then (in the least) 60 percent of the space vacated will be given to other litigants. To that extent the Governments litigation in the Courts will be reduced and the Government will be not a dominant litigant, but an efficient (thinnest) and responsible litigant. Thereby to that extent we have already put in place the National Litigation Policy where “Let the Court decide” kind of attitude will be changed. Even for the State litigations we have now mandated, that unless new operations lie under the State Litigation Policy (disclosed or discussed earlier), the grant given under the 13th Finance Commission will not be released”..“Also programmes pertaining to the appointment of judges, Ad-hoc judges, Additional judges etc. all these are included, and in addition to this we are proving funds to the Subordinate judiciary for the physical infrastructure”..The National Litigation Policy (NLP) introduced by the Ministry of Law and Justice needs to perform and show results. The NLP proposes to bring down cases of Government as a litigant and all other litigants at large. The aim is to reduce the average time of pending cases in India from 15 years to 3 years.