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1 History
- 1.1 The history explains the causes (and AI, perhaps, the solution
2 Causes
3 Cost to nation of judicial delays
- 3.1 Cases pendency hitting India’s economic growth
4 Supreme Court on pending cases
5 The extent of the problem
6 Acquittal rate
- 6.1 High rate in Delhi, 2011-15
7 Courtrooms, shortage of
- 7.1 2018: Shortage of 4,000 courtrooms
8 Alternate Dispute Resolution
- 8.1 2015> 2017: ADR a success
9 Pendency, strategies to tackle
- 9.1 Courts must follow case timelines
- 9.2 Retired High Court judges, use of services
10 Region-wise
11 Success stories
- 11.1 2017: 4 states, 1 UT clear 10- year backlog
12 The loss that delays inflict
- 12.1 Compensating for lost years
13 Undertrial prisoners
14 See also

History

The history explains the causes (and AI, perhaps, the solution

Dhananjay Mahapatra, Will AI cure trial courts of 100-year-old pendency headache?, July 9, 2018: The Times of India

Nearly 250 years ago, the British East India Company under governor general Warren Hastings started ‘Dewani’ (civil) and ‘Fauzdari’ (criminal) court system. The first Law Commission, set up in 1834 under Lord T B Macaulay, did stupendous work towards codification of civil and criminal laws. After the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, the British government acted on the drafts presented by the commission and enacted Civil Procedure Code, 1859; Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Criminal Procedure Code, 1861.

Codification of civil and criminal laws led to a spurt in court-based litigation which stamped out the traditional panchayat system that provided inexpensive justice. By 1920s, India had a population of 11 crore. Yet, courts had started feeling the heat of pendency. The British set up a commission headed by Calcutta HC’s Justice Rankin in 1924 to study the problem and recommend ways and means to contain pendency, which was spooking litigants.

In his report in 1925, Justice Rankin said, “Existence of mass arrears takes the heart out of a presiding officer (judicial officer). He can hardly be expected to take long interest in preliminaries, when he knows that the hearing of the evidence and the decision will not be by him but by his successor after his transfer. So long as such arrears exist, there is temptation to which many presiding officers succumb, to hold back the heavier contested suits and devote attention to the lighter ones.”

Nearly a hundred years have passed since. Yet, Justice Rankin’s finding holds good for trial judges even today as nearly 19,000 of them face a pendency of 2.74 crore cases. One must not lose sight that they decide over one crore cases annually, the number of fresh cases which gets filed every year. But the pendency monster continues to live and spread its rotund belly to choke access to justice and stifle right to speedy justice.

The first Law Commission in independent India, headed by renowned lawyer M C Setalvad, made a detailed study of the problems ailing the three-tier justice dispensation system and submitted a 1,262-page report in September 1958 to the Centre. It brushed aside demands for radical reforms and suggested elaborate procedural reforms to ease the choke points.

After Emergency, the Law Commission headed by Justice H R Khanna in November 1978 submitted a report suggesting ways and means to secure elimination of delays and arrears in trial courts. At that time, approximately 4,000 trial judges were facing a pendency of 21 lakh cases. This report said the annual disposal rate was equal to the rate of filing of fresh cases and recommended streamlining of procedures to ease the burden.

In 2014, Justice A P Shahheaded Law Commission suggested a novel method to compute the number of trial judges required to erase the backlog and achieve speedy justice in letter and spirit while concluding that “judicial system is unable to deliver timely justice because of huge backlog of cases for which current judge strength is inadequate”.

Till now, Law Commission recommendations and the SC devised mechanisms to speed up the justice delivery system were characteristically a bird’s eye view shorn of recognising the difficulties faced by trial judges in dealing with cases at ground level. The revolution in information technology has provided judiciary with the opportunity to adopt a different approach to empower trial judges to deal with pendency effectively.

Two weeks ago, CJI Dipak Misra said, “Law ultimately belongs to litigants and we have to ensure that it reaches them timely and effectively.” Apart from the oft-repeated demand for adequate infrastructure and increase in number of trial judges, he acknowledged that “without co- mprehensive range of information technology and communication tools, we cannot expect a state-ofthe-art judicial infrastructure, which will advance the paradigm of rule of law”.

The solution must necessarily come from those involved with trial courts. A young advocate, Karan Kalia, recently gave a presentation on an artificial intelligenceaided comprehensive software programme for speedy disposal of trial cases to the SC’s eCommittee headed by Justice Madan B Lokur.

The software developed by Kalia’s team is impressive as it provides relevant case laws to a trial judge instantaneously while identifying its reliability value. It also helps the trial judge note down daily case proceedings, which could be recalled later on at the touch of a button.

Moreover, the software is so designed that the trial judge automatically gets guided to those portions of higher court rulings relevant to the case she is adjudicating, thus, saving precious time that would have been spent in reading lengthy judgments in entirety.

Like Justice Rankin had said, most trial judges today are reluctant to take up lengthy matters because they are sure they would not be able to write the judgment for it. However, through Kalia’ system, the judge who succeeds a transferred judge will, at the touch of a button, be able to recall the summary of proceedings that took place earlier, saving him from rummaging through voluminous records.

Only when technology aided innovative measures get implemented at the first tier of justice delivery system will the rhetoric of access to justice and speedy justice become reality.

Causes

Adjournments, if frequent, harass witnesses: HC

The Times of India, Jun 22 2016

Abhinav Garg

The high court has deprecated the practice of criminal courts granting frequent adjournments, leading to harassment of public witnesses who come to depose. In a recent order, Justice Sunita Gupta identified this “attitude of courts of sending witnesses back“ as a major cause of “harassment which discourages public from associating in the investigation of any case.“

The court said, due to being forced to come to court repeatedly , even a public spirited person who may have witnessed a crime avoids joining police and court proceedings.Justice Gupta pointed out that even before coming to court to depose, a witness has been a part of investigation which “itself is a tedious pro cess where a public witness, who is associated, has to spend hours at the spot.“

Favouring fewer adjournments and a sense of urgency on behalf of courts in recording the testimony of a witness, the court reminded the prosecution that “normally , nobody from public is prepared to suffer any inconvenience for the sake of society.“

The other reason, the court explained, for a public witness not readily associating with a criminal investigation is “their harassment that takes place in the courts.“ It added that “normally a public witness should be called once to depose in the court and his testimony should be recorded and he should be discharged.But experience shows that adjournments are given even in criminal cases on all excuses and if adjournments are not given, it is considered as a breach of the right of hearing of the accused...“

Justice Gupta's observations came while upholding the conviction of Rajveer and Rajeev who were awarded a ten year jail term by a special NDPS court earlier. They had filed an appeal challenging the conviction order. Accusing the police of implicating them, the accused said that the absence of a witness clearly casts a doubt on the prosecution version. But the court said there is no reason to disbelieve version of a police witness if other evidence supports the prosecution version.

‘A Culture of delay allowed by mindsets’

Arghya Sengupta, Hidden factors that slow our courts and delay justice, Mar 29, 2017: The Times of India

Study shows why merely increasing the number of judges may not be enough to clear the alarming backlog of cases

Much popular attention pertaining to the judi ciary has been on the vexed question of judicial appointments, a power struggle between the government and judges for determining who has the final word on the judiciary's ideological trajectory and the careers of individuals manning it. This has meant that the core issue -unacceptable delays in the judicial system -is sidelined. Delay is mainly seen as an HR issue -appoint more judges and delay will automatically reduce.By blaming delay solely on inadequate capacity , neither the judiciary nor the government is asking the hard questions: What are the mindsets within the judiciary that allow a culture of delay to fester? As of September 30, 2016, the Supreme Court has nearly 61,000 pending cases, official figures say . The high courts have a backlog of more than 40 lakh cases, and all subordinate courts together are yet to dispose of around 2.85 crore cases. At all three levels, courts dispose of fewer cases than are filed.The number of pending cases keeps growing, litigants face even dimmer prospects of their cases being disposed of quickly .

This is the trend across the country . In high courts, 94% of cases have been pending for 5-15 years. In Alla habad, the country's largest and by many accounts, an inefficient court, 925,084 cases are pending. On an average, cases take three years and nine months to get disposed.In Delhi HC, considered publicly as one of the best, 66,281 are pending. It takes an average of two years and eight months to give its verdict in a case. To be fair, delays are not a peculiarly Indian phenomenon. Many advanced countries struggle to provide quick, high-quality justice to citizens. But in India the scale of the problem is unprecedented.

Focusing on capac ity alone won't reduce delays.A pervasive reason for delays is adjournments. A study by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy (VCLP) conducted on Delhi HC found that in 91% of cases delayed over two years, adjournments were sought and granted. Merely increasing the number of judges won't help because adjournments are acceptable in our judicial system. These encourage delaying tactics, block judicial time, prevent effective case m a n a g e m e n t and impoverish litigants. They deter many from seeking access to for mal justice. Apart from the lawyers, who often charge per hearing, none benefits.

An initiative by VCLP -Justice, Access and Low ering Delays in India (Jal di) -seeks to address the problem. It talks of reducing government litigation, com pulsory use of mediation and other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. It mentions simplifying proce dures, recommending pre cise capacity reinforcements and use of technology . The goal is to find a way to clear all backlog in the courts within six years.

This isn't unrealistic. In Singapore, the implementa tion of similar reforms in the 1990s led to astonishing re sults, 95% of civil and 99% of criminal cases were disposed of in 1999. The average length of commercial cases fell from around six years in the 1980s to 1.25 years in 2000. The pend ing cases count hasn't grown substantially since.

While implementing such , reforms will present chal lenges, it is critical that the public narrative around de lays changes. Delay in courts is not an HR issue -it is a question of the growth of a culture that has made delays acceptable. It impacts our ease of doing business rank ings and hinders access to justice to the mazdoor whose employment has been unlawfully terminated.

Scarcely has there been an issue that cries out louder for the government and the judiciary to secure the constitutional mandate of speedy and effective access to justice.Arghya Sengupta is research director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy The data in the graphic alongside is from a report on inefficiency & judicial delay (Delhi high court) by Nitika Khaitan, Shalini Seetharam, Sumathi Chandrashekaran of the Judicial Reforms Initiative at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy

Government litigation

Dhananjay Mahapatra, Stop clogging courts with frivolous cases, SC tells govt, May 1, 2018: The Times of India

Cases filed by the central and state governments as a percentage of the total number of cases pending in Indian courts, as in 2017
From: Dhananjay Mahapatra, Stop clogging courts with frivolous cases, SC tells govt, May 1, 2018: The Times of India

The 10 ministries with highest pendency of cases, as in 2017
From: Dhananjay Mahapatra, Stop clogging courts with frivolous cases, SC tells govt, May 1, 2018: The Times of India

Centre Pulled Up For Similar Pleas, Fined ₹1L Twice

“The couldn’t-care-less and insouciant attitude of the Union government with regard to litigation has gone a little too far,” the Supreme Court said and castigated the Centre for repeatedly filing appeals on identical questions of law despite being fined earlier for clogging the justice delivery system with frivolous cases.

Ticking off the Centre for snail-paced efforts to streamline its litigation policy, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta recently used the NDA government’s reformist slogan of “ease of doing business” to make a sharp point. “Under the garb of ease of doing business, judiciary is being asked to reform. The boot is really on the other leg,” the bench said. Pointing to the collateral damage the overcrowding of the judicial system caused other litigants, besides financial liabilities of the government, the court asked when the “Rip Van Winkleism” would end.

“We hope that someday, some sense, if not better sense, will prevail on the Union of India with regard to the formulation of a realistic and meaningful national litigation policy and what it calls ‘ease of doing business’, which can, if faithfully implemented, benefit litigants across the country,” the bench said.

On December 8 last year, the SC had dismissed a batch of appeals filed by the Centre. Unmindful, the Centre filed another batch of petitions in March involving the very same question of law. It was dismissed with a cost of Rs 1 lakh on March 9. “Unfortunately, the Union government has learned no lesson,” the bench of Justices Lokur and Gupta said on April 24 when it came across a third set of appeals on the same issue with an identical question of law.

SC: When will govt wake up to its duties to justice-delivery system?

The bench said it had expected the Centre to take steps to withdraw all pending appeals from the SC registry once the question of law was settled by the December 8 order.

“But obviously, the Union government has no such concern and did not withdraw appeals from the registry. The government must appreciate that by pursuing frivolous or infructuous cases, it is adding to the burden of this court and collaterally harming other litigants by delaying hearing in their cases through the sheer volume of numbers. If the Union government cares a little for the justice delivery system, it should display some concern for litigants, many of whom have to spend a small fortune in litigating in the Supreme Court,” it said and slapped an additional cost of Rs 1 lakh while dismissing the appeals.

Writing the judgment for the bench, Justice Lokur said, “To make matters worse, in this appeal, the Union government has engaged 10 lawyers, including an additional solicitor general and a senior advocate. In other words, the Union government has created a huge financial liability by engaging so many lawyers for an appeal whose fate can be easily imagined on the basis of existing orders of dismissal in similar cases.

“Yet, the Union of India is increasing its liability and asking the taxpayers to bear an avoidable financial burden for the misadventure. Is any thought being given to this? The real question is: When will the Rip Van Winkleism stop and Union of India wake up to its duties and responsibilities to the justice delivery system?”

Referring to the Centre’s 2010 “National Legal Mission” to reduce average pendency from 15 years to three years and the “National Litigation Policy”, the SC said, “None of the pious platitudes of the NLC have been followed, indicating not only the Union government’s lack of concern for the justice delivery system but scant regard for its own policy.”

The court said the 2010 policy was supposed to be reviewed and reformulated in 2015. “When this will be finalised is anybody’s guess... Nothing has been finalised by the Union government for the last almost eight years,” it said.

2018: govt’s findings; efforts to reduce government litigation

July 2, 2018: The Times of India

To bring down litigation in courts, the government may soon enhance the financial threshold of cases in which it would approach the Supreme Court against an adverse high court order to Rs 50 lakh. The threshold is Rs 10 lakh now.

However, this threshold will not apply to cases where government policy is challenged and may have wider implications. This is another measure to limit government departments going for appeals after a web portal was set up in 2016 where all litigation across 55 ministries and departments are monitored online, their progress at each stage of trial tracked and final pendency status prepared ministry-wise.

An analysis carried out by the law ministry last year had found that 46% of all litigation across courts were cases or appeals filed by state or central governments. These litigation included service matters, disputes with private entities as well as disputes between two government departments and disputes between two PSUs.

The docket of 3.15 crore pending cases would come down if government litigation is brought down. The ministries of railways, finance, communications, home and defence have emerged as the top five central ministries which have the highest number of cases.

A similar case study by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for the Central Board of Excise and Customs for financial years 2014, 2015 and 2016 showed that it had been filing an average 1,700 appeals annually before the SC despite the fact that its success rate came down during the period from 19%to11%,or for every 100cases filed, the department lost 89.

According to the income tax study, its field authorities together had a pendency of over 38,000 cases in various HCs with tax effect of Rs 2.87 lakh crore. All its pendency put together had revenue implication of over Rs 9.60 lakh crore.

Holidays/ vacations are on high side

Efforts to cut SC holidays stalled

The Times of India, May 18 2016

Judges, advocates stalled efforts to cut SC holidays, say ex-CJIs

Dhananjay Mahapatra

As the Supreme Court commences its 48-day summer vacation, many former Chief Justices of India said their efforts to reduce pendency by shrinking the holidays were frustrated by both judges and advocates.

Just a few weeks back, CJI T S Thakur had become emotional while appealing to the government to speed up the appointment of judges to high courts as the huge pendency of nearly 40 lakh cases in HCs cast an enormous burden on judges.

Former CJIs feel reduction in holidays would be a major step to counter pendency . The 1966 rules of the SC had allowed it to take a summer break up to 10 weeks. The first reduction in the recess happened under then CJI Y K Sabharwal, who cut it down to eight weeks.

Many succeeding CJIs, including Justices S H Kapadia, P Sathasivam, R M Lodha and H L Dattu, tried to convince judges and the bar association to trim the break.“But the judges and advocates stonewalled any proposal for reducing the break. No doubt the summer is harsh in Delhi. But all others work during the summer. So why not judges,“ said an ex-CJI.

It was Lodha who wanted courts, including the SC, to function 365 days a year and had presented a blueprint for it. He had proposed that every judge would intimate in advance the major periods of leave he would take in a year and that would be incorporated to chart out a roster for sitting of judges without the SC closing for a day. During Lodha's tenure as CJI, the 1966 rules were amended and the summer break was officially reduced from 10 weeks to seven. “It would be ideal to reduce the summer break to four weeks,“ some ex-CJIs told TOI.

“The SC closes for two weeks for the winter break.It also closes for 10 days each for Holi, Dussehra and Diwali. The winter break could be reduced to a week and Holi, Dussehra and Diwali could each have three days holiday ,“ they said.

If the suggestions are taken and implemented, it will produce an additional 50 working days for the SC, the ex-CJIs said. In a year, at present, the SC works for 193 days, the HCs 210 days and trial courts 245 days.

Inefficiency to blame

Delayed cases in Delhi HIgh Court, some facta and definitions; The Times of India, March 29, 2017

See graphic 'Delayed cases in Delhi HIgh Court, some facta and definitions'

Multiple causes

Not shortage of judges alone

`Cases pending not just due to shortage of judges' Oct 11 2016 : The Times of India

Advocating reforms in the justice delivery system, a note prepared by the law ministry for the forthcoming advisory council meeting of National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms said, “The linking of problem of pendency of cases in courts with shortage of judges alone may not present the complete picture“.

The ministry studied state-wise comparison of the judge-population ratio, number of cases being instituted in courts, cases disposed per judge per annum and pending cases and observed there was little to link the pendency of cases with the shortage of judges.

The ministry said a variety of factors contributed to delay in disposal of cases including lack of court management systems, frequent adjournments, strikes by lawyers, accumulation of first appeals, indiscriminate use of writ jurisdiction and lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing.

States with higher judge population ratio, such as Delhi (ranked second) and Gujarat (fifth) are struggling to dispose pending cases.“Conversely , states such as Tamil Nadu and Punjab, ranked lower in terms of judgepopulation ratio, have comparatively lesser number of pending cases,“ it said.

The state-wise analysis on civil cases instituted in district and subordinate courts between 2005 and 2015 revealed that their number had come down from 40.69 lakh in 2005 to 36.22 lakh in 2015. During the time, pendency of civil cases increased from 72.54 lakh to 84 lakh.

“...in 2005, the working strength of judges in district and subordinate courts was 11,682 which increased to 16,070 in 2015. Despite the increase in judges and decline in cases filed, the pendency increased,“ it said.

Judge shortage, adjournments, dubious litigations

The Times of India, May 08 2016

Abhinav Garg & Sana Shakil

Uncharacteristic as it was, Chief Justice of India T S Thakur's emotional outpouring at the conference of chief justices and chief ministers in Delhi impressed upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others in the audience that India could not expect to reduce litigation pendency or the backlog of cases without drastically increasing the number of judges.

CJI Thakur's comments were widely discussed in the Delhi high court too but a scrutiny of the two “biennial reports“ brought out by the court administration in the past decade shows the answer may not lie merely in boosting judge numbers. If lawyers and litigants are to be believed, any effective attack on the arrears has to focus on cutting down on adjournments, existing judges putting in more hours of work and maximising the number of court working days in a year.

Consider this: In 2008-09, HC had around 40 judges who managed to dispose of 50,000 cases at an average of over 4,000 a month. The following year saw around 43 judges clearing roughly 43,000 cases for a monthly average of 3,600. The second report showed an average of 40.41 judges bringing to a conclusion 40,861cases in 201011at 3,300 cases per month. This rose to 3,558 disposals per month in 2011-12 though the court was hampered, having to make do with just 36 judges.

The reports may not provide definitive answers, but are handy signposts that show surges and falls in the rate of disposals by division benches. Depending on which jurisdiction of the court the cases were filed under, even fewer benches sometimes cleared a higher number of cases in a year.

“What the data shows is backlog reduction is judgecentric rather than outcome of a cogent system,“ an insider explained. “The court has failed to build and increase its capacity to maximise output and is dependent on few enterprising individuals to keep it afloat from mounting arrears.“ Senior lawyer Aman Lekhi said the bane of protracted litigation required a holistic approach for a solution. “Staff crunch and lack of infrastructure are big problems but other things can improve the situation. The lawyers' tendency to prolong cases has to stop and judges should ensure that arguments are time-bound.“

It is not the Supreme Court or the high court that people approach as first resort. Cases begin in Delhi's district courts, where pendency is at a staggering 2.18 crore cases. Statistics show the shortage of judges is certainly a factor for cases dragging on for years, sometimes even for decades, but here too there are other factors at work.

The varied nature of cases that come before these courts often results in an uneven distribution of workload among the judges. For instance, the number of criminal cases varies from district to district, leaving some courts overburdened and some with very less wo rk. There is also the issue of courts created for special cases.Special courts were created for hearing the coal and 2G scam cases, but no new judge was recruited. In effect, work was redistributed and more cases piled on the existing judges.

A proposal to appoint 210 more judges for the district courts is hanging fire due to lack of land to build more courtrooms where the officers can function from. An alternative plan to expand space in the six court complexes, according to sources, also cannot be carried out, at least at this stage.

When cases from other states are transferred to Delhi for fairer trials on the directions of SC, litigation can be a lengthy process because bringing witnesses to depose in Delhi is a time-consuming exercise. The murder case of former railway minister L N Mishra, transferred to Delhi from Bihar, took, for instance, almost four decades to reach a conclusion.

Frivolous PILs, a common burden for courts across the country , has impacted Delhi HC less after it tightened procedu res a few years ago to screen petitions failing to meet the “public interest“ criteria laid down by the court. In the lower courts, it is a bane. Senior advocate Rebecca John, who specialises in criminal litigation, said, “Dubious litigations are allowed to proceed, adding to the load of overworked courts. Courts, especially superior courts, need to be firm while dealing with frivolous cases and in that I notice a lack of leadership on the part of SC and HCs.“

An insider also pointed out that the concepts of plea bargaining and out-of-court settlements that can quickly resolve some disputes are not encouraged in India. “In some cases, as in bank frauds, the idea is to recover money and not pursue prosecution. They can be settled out of court,“ the insider said.

Red tape and multiplicity of agencies have hobbled the construction of additional courtrooms, forensic labs and intake of more prosecutors, all vital cogs in the justice delivery system. Obviously , it needs more than the tears of a chief justice to get the wheels moving.

Absconding accused; evidence not given by parties

Pradeep Thakur, Absconding accused end up clogging lower courts, March 25, 2019: The Times of India

The main causes of judicial delays/ pendency in India, presumably as in 2019
From: Pradeep Thakur, Absconding accused end up clogging lower courts, March 25, 2019: The Times of India

‘Accused absconding’ has been cited as the reason in over 7,000 cases pending in the lower judiciary, some of them since 1948. More than 2.99 crore cases are pending in district and subordinate courts and judges have now provided reasons for delay in nearly 25,000 cases.

Parties not recording evidence before trial courts, stay granted by high courts and the Supreme Court, absence of important witnesses, parties not interested, and delay in receiving government documents rounded up the list of top six reasons for delay in disposal of cases.

Earlier TOIhad reported how over 78,000 cases were pending in district and subordinate judiciary for over 30 years, the oldest pending case traced to 1914. The performance of the 24 HCs was equally woeful with more than 56,000 cases pending for over three decades. The total pendency in all courts across the country, including the SC and HCs, has crossed an alltime high of 3.12 crore.

As part of the newly-introduced court management system, it has been made mandatory for lower court judges to record reasons for delay in disposal of cases. However, not all judges have been providing reasons. SC and HC judges have also not followed the mechanism. Repeated adjournments have become the norm rather than exception.

In a case before a junior division civil judge in Buldhana in Maharashtra, a case is pending as the accused has been absconding since 1963, according to reasons cited on the National Judicial Data Grid, monitored by the SC. In another case before a senior division civil judge in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, a case is pending since 1958 because of a stay granted by the HC. A 1968 case is pending for final order before a junior division civil judge in Mau, UP, because of repeated stays by the HC.

Other reasons cited for delay in disposal included obstruction in execution (154 cases), records not available (175 cases), SC stay (170 cases), complex litigation (253 cases), district court stay (116 cases), failed attempts at recovery (841 cases), frequent challenges to HC (197 cases), heavy pendency in courts (371 cases), and legal representatives not on record (1,106 cases). Reasons have not been recorded for a majority of the cases.

The first of its kind data has been made available as a result of the case management system called CIS 3.0 (Case Information System), an electronic monitoring of all cases filed across the country with current status. The e-Courts reform was implemented under the guidance of Justice Madan B Lokur who recently retired from the apex court but continues to supervise reforms in the judiciary.

CIS 3.0 has helped the higher judiciary and the government monitor performance of each and every judge, how much time they spend on each case listed before them every day and their disposal record.

Procedural timeframes, non-adherence to

The Times of India, Aug 25 2016

Brajesh Ranjan

Judgments diluting timeframes in Code of Civil Procedure worsen the problem of adjournments

There are around 21.3 million cases currently pending in various courts in India including the Supreme Court. The magnitude of this pro blem was brought sharply into perspective in a magazine article last year, which stated “if the nation's judges attacked their backlog nonstop with no breaks for eating or sleeping and closed 100 cases every hour, it would take more than 35 years to catch up“. How did we get here? The problem of delay in Indian judicial system has been studied extensively by the Indian Law Commission over the years. In these studies, infrastructural deficiencies have frequently been blamed for the delay . Accordingly , more courts and more judges are seen as a solution.However, a cause that remains underexamined in the literature and public discourse on delay is the contribution of the courts to the problem by nonadherence to procedural timeframes.

Specification of time limits has emerged as a distinctive feature of process reforms across jurisdictions that have been able to quantifiably minimise judicial delay , such as the UK and Singapore. In India, there have been at least two major amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure, in 1999 and 2002, which specified timeframes vis-à-vis completion of various processual steps in civil proceedings. But that doesn't seem to have remedied the problem in any significant way .

Why, one may wonder, have the prescribed timeframes not worked in India?

A close examination of the Supreme Court's reception of these timeframes is revealing. Let's look at an indicative assortment of four amending provisions that introduced specific outer timeframes in the Code and their interpretation by the Supreme Court.

Prior to 1999, there was no limit on the number of trial adjournments courts could grant. The 1999 Amendment fixed an upper limit of three adjournments that courts could grant during the hearing of a suit. However, in the 2005 case of Salem Advocate Bar Association-II (2005 (6) SCC 344), the Supreme Court interpreted this restriction as not curtailing the court's power to allow more than three adjournments.

This decision has had an active afterlife, having been invoked by tens of high court decisions which proudly proclaim the court's inherent rights to endlessly adjourn.

The 1999 Amendment fixed the timeframe for yet another important provision which directly impacted the court's general power to extend timelines. It specifically disallowed the courts from enlarging the time granted by them for doing any “act prescribed or allowed by the Code“ beyond a maximum period of 30 days. However, in the same 2005 case, the Supreme Court interpreted this timeframe as one not attenuating the inherent power of Indian courts to “pass orders as may be necessary for the ends of justice or to prevent abuse of process of the Court“.

In order to curb the practice of non prosecution of cases filed by litigants, the 1999 Amendment also fixed an outer timeline of 30 days for service of summons on defendants. However, in 2003, in the case of Salem Advocate Bar Association-I (AIR 2003 SC 189) the Supreme Court interpreted this to mean that 30 days limit designated only the outer timeframe within which steps must be takenby the plaintiff to enable the court to issue the summons. In other words, the court held that the provision did not specify a time limit within which summons ought to be served on the defendant by the court. Insertion of another timeframe that was pivotal to curbing delays was introduced in 2002. Prior to 2002, a written statement could be filed within any time as permitted by the court. The 2002 Amendment incorporated a mandatory outer timeline for filing written statement by not allowing the courts to accept it beyond a period of 90 days from the date of service of summons. However, in the 2005 judgment of Kailash vs Nanhku (AIR 2005 SC 2441), the Supreme Court relaxed this statutorily prescribed deadline by interpreting it as merely directory and not mandatory.

It held that courts could use their discretion in unspecified exceptional circumstances to accept delayed written statements. This case has been applied as a virtual carte blanche by lawyers to file written statements beyond 90 days as a matter of course. Thus the exceptional has become the new normal.

Evidently , in each of these illustrations, the Supreme Court relaxes the timeframe inserted by the amendments and restores to the courts discretion to dilute them in accordance with the courts' perceived sense of justice.

These illustrations are not merely fragmentary instances. Similar examples of the undoing of procedure may be found for nearly every provision in the Code that contains a time limit. These illustrations are in fact, a sampling of the adjudicatory manoeuvres by which the Supreme Court has unwittingly come to countenance delay , in contradiction to the express wordings and intent of the Code.

In addition, phrases like “procedures are the handmaiden of justice“, frequently invoked by the Supreme Court, serve as lexical alibis by which departures from procedure are introduced and justified.

Solving the infrastructural deficit by itself would not reduce delays unless a simultaneous effort is made at reforming this jurisprudence of delay that has been allowed to take root. With over 21million cases pending, treating procedural laws as the equal partner rather than a handmaiden of justice would be a better way forward through the crisis.

‘Stay’ orders delay cases # 6.5 years

The Times of India, Jun 22 2016

Pradeep Thakur

Stays by HCs, SC delay cases by up to 6.5 yrs

Stays on proceedings ordered by high courts and the Supreme Court delay trial by up to 6.5 years, according to a study by the law ministry . Significantly, the average life of a case is 10-15 years. In effect, a case remains in limbo for 50% of its life span because of stays granted by the higher judiciary . The study , which covered the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha HCs, found that trial proceedings had been stayed by superior courts in more than 15,300 civil and criminal cases.

The findings are based on analysis of the annual reports of these HCs. There are 24 HCs in the country , and the data coming out on the number of cases stayed is just a fraction of the total number of cases stayed, a source said. Interestingly , not all HCs are publishing annual reports, making it difficult to ascertain the “accurate and complete picture“.

“There is no uniformity in the manner in which judicial statistics are being provided in annual reports, making it difficult to compare data,“ says the report. The study has also found that the high number of adjournments result in an increase in the average life cycle of cases. It has analysed the number of adjournments granted in Odisha and Rajasthan. Only these two HCs are believed to have provided such data in their annual reports -that too only for their subordinate courts. In Odisha, on an average 51 adjourn ments are granted in civil cases and 33 in criminal cases. For Rajasthan, the adjournments are on average up to 42 in civil cases and 34 in criminal. “It is to be considered that the high number of adjournments hinders the reduction of pendency as is evident from the figures above,“ the report says. The total pendency of cases remained static at around 10.59 lakh in case of subordinate courts in Odisha, and in case of Rajasthan it went up from 14.54 lakh to 14.78 lakh between January and December 2015.

The law ministry had recently also asked all HCs to provide data on their longest reserved judgments. The Calcutta HC reported its longest reserved judgment was for over seven years. It was not known if this was the longest reserved judgment as some of the HCs chose not to respond to the government query . The oldest reserved judgment in the Allahabad HC is pending for three years. The Jharkhand HC has reported its longest pending judgment is for two years while two other HCs of Kerala and Gujarat have reported judgments reserved for more than a year.

Vacancies in Judiciary

See graphic:

The extent of vacancies has been taken up on the page Judiciary: India

Cost to nation of judicial delays

Cases pendency hitting India’s economic growth

Cases pendency hitting India’s economic growth, January 30, 2018: The Times of India

The Economic Survey has made an attempt for the first time to study the backlog of cases in courts which it said is affecting India’s economic activity. The study, which captured government projects in six infrastructure ministries to the tune of Rs 52,000 crore currently stayed by court injunctions, said they had likely cost enhancement of up to 60% during the period of pendency.

The hardest hit are the ministries of power, roads and railways. “Since project costs were predominantly debt-financed, it is likely that project costs have increased by close to 60% given the average duration of stay,” the survey noted. The study has substantiated its claims through data collected from the State Bank of India.

Despite India jumping 30 places in the World Bank’s ease of doing business last year, the economic survey has pointed out that the backlog of cases in courts is not only affecting economic activity but also making a huge dent on the finances of companies.

The illustrative example of six infrastructure ministries does not include other central or state government projects that are similarly stalled by court injunctions, nor past projects.

“Pendency of economic cases are high and mounting in the Supreme Court, high courts, Tribunals and tax department, which is taking a severe toll on the economy in terms of stalled projects, mounting legal costs, contested tax revenues and reduced investment,” the Survey observed.

Creation of tribunals, which have seen a 25% increase in the size of unresolved cases, have not helped reduce pendency in high courts. While the average pendency across tribunals is 3.8 years, it is 4.3 years in high courts.

“The Supreme Court has less capacity to deal with economic cases because of rising overall pendency,” it said. The other reason being the SC has increasingly been admitting more special leave petitions, which empowers any party to approach it directly. Initially SLPs were invoked only in “exceptional circumstances” now they have increased from around 25% in 2008 to nearly 40% in 2016.

Supreme Court on pending cases

Curb adjournments, speed up trials, SC tells lower courts

‘Law Being Violated With Impunity’

Dhananjay Mahapatra The Times of India 2013/05/15

The Times of India

At a time when people are getting impatient with judicial delays, the Supreme Court has stepped in to curb the tendency of trial courts to liberally grant adjournments at the instance of lawyers. It said that trial courts were flouting “with impunity” the Criminal Procedure Code mandate for conducting proceedings on a day-to-day basis after witness examination starts and were easily granting adjournments.

A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra expressed “anguish, agony and concern” over adjournments granted by a Punjab trial court in a bride burning case which stretched the process of examination of witnesses to more than two years.

“On perusal of dates of examination-in-chief and crossexamination, it neither requires Solomon’s wisdom nor Argus eyes (mythological giant with 100 eyes) scrutiny to observe that the trial was conducted in an absolute piecemeal manner as if it was required to be held at the mercy of the counsel,” Justice Misra, who authored the judgment, said.

Referring to Section 309 of the CrPC, the bench said once a case reached the stage of examination of witnesses, the law mandated that it “shall be continued from day-to-day until all witnesses in attendance have been examined”. The section provides that if for some unavoidable reason the court was to grant adjournment, it must record its reasons in writing.

‘Trial judge can’t be a mute spectator to litigants’ tactics’

The Supreme Court expressed its anguish over the tendency of trial courts to liberally grant adjourments. “It is apt to note here that this court expressed its distress that it has become a common practice and regular occurrence that the trial courts flout the legislative command with impunity,” the bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said.

The bench added that the criminal justice dispensation system casts a heavy burden on the trial judge to have full control over the proceedings. “The criminal justice system has to be placed on a proper pedestal and it can’t be left to the whims and fancies of the parties or their counsel.”

“A trial judge cannot be a mute spectator to the trial being controlled by the parties, for it is his primary duty to monitor the trial and such monitoring has to be in consonance with the CrPC ,” the bench said. The SC wanted trial judges to keep in mind the mandate of the CrPC and not get guided by their thinking.

“They cannot abandon their responsibility. It should be borne in mind that the whole dispensation of criminal justice system at the ground level rests on how a trial is conducted. It needs no special emphasis to state that dispensation of criminal justice system is not only a concern of the bench but has to be the concern of the bar,” it said.

On the case of bride burning and ill-treatment meted out to daughters-in-law, the apex court said, “A daughter-in-law is to be treated as a member of the family with warmth and affection and not as a stranger with despicable and ignoble indifference. She should not be treated as a housemaid. No impression should be given that she can be thrown out of her matrimonial home at any time.”

The Times of India’s View

Given the enormous backlog of cases in Indian courts, particularly at the lower levels, any measure that helps speed up processes is welcome. Getting rid of needless adjournments is certainly an important step and the Supreme Court must be thanked for stepping in to curb them. We hope that the implementation of this directive will be rigorous.

trial courts

SC blames HCs for delay in hearing criminal cases

Apex Court Finds 2,280 Cases Of Rape, Murder Stayed By HCs

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN

From the archives of The Times of India 2007, 2009

New Delhi: Ever wondered why so many accused in heinous crimes — murder, rape, kidnapping and dacoity — roam around for years before the law catches up with them?

This question bothered the Supreme Court a lot and it found that the High Courts were mainly responsible for such a sorry state of affairs. For, they have stayed the proceedings in these cases and forgotten all about them for years.

As many as 2,280 cases relating to murder, rape, kidnapping and dacoity have been stayed by HCs at various — FIR, investigation, framing of charges and trial — stages and then left in the limbo, possibly allowing the accused to remain at large on bail.

A Bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly sought assistance from Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam for collating data on cases relating to the four categories of heinous crimes which have been stayed by HCs after it found an identical situation pointed out in a petition filed by Imtiaz Ahmed, where the Allahabad HC had stayed a criminal case since April 2003.

The efforts by the SG to collate such cases threw up startling facts:

Murder cases stayed at various stages by HCs were 1,021 (45% of the total cases), rape cases 492, kidnapping cases 550 and dacoity 217

As many as 41% of the 2,280 cases were pending for 2-6 years and 8% for more than 8 years. Of a total of 178 cases pending for more than 6 years, 97 were murder cases

Calcutta High Court appears to be the most liberal when it came to staying cases relating to heinous crimes accounting for 31% of the 2,280 cases. Allahabad High Court was not far behind having stayed 29% of the cases

In most of the cases across the HCs, the duration for which the case is pending varied from 1 to 4 years. It is seen that 34 out of 201 cases in Patna HC and 33 out of 653 cases in Allahabad HC were pending for more than 8 years

After perusing the enormity of the situation and having regard to the case in hand that related to Allahabad HC, the Bench headed by Justice Singhvi requested the counsel for the High Court to furnish data about the number of cases which have been stayed at the stage of investigation or trial and listed the matter for further hearing on July 9.

The report was submitted to the court by Subramaniam, who took assistance of Dr Pronab Sen and Dr G S Manna, secretary and deputy director in the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, in studying the data supplied by various HCs.

The SG, in the concluding part of the report, said “the fact-finding exercise by the Supreme Court has revealed a problem of serious dimension” and suggested that the apex court would be well within its jurisdiction to direct the HCs to dispose of the matter within a year from the date of grant of stay in cases relating to heinous crimes.

If a case was not disposed of within a year, the concerned judge must record the reasons which should be communicated to the concerned chief justice of the HC, Subramaniam suggested.

SC: ‘Flood of appeals affecting verdicts’

From the archives of The Times of India 2010

Pressure Does Not Give Judges Enough Time To Deliberate Upon Cases: SC

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN

New Delhi: A concern expressed in hushed voices by senior lawyers for quite some time in the corridors of the apex court has now become official.

The Supreme Court has admitted that deluge of appeals is affecting the quality of its judgments, which are abided by all and sundry as the law of the land.

It does not want the apex court, set up to decide constitutional issues and inter-state disputes in addition to giving opinion to the President on tricky legal questions, to get reduced to just a final court of appeal being mired in the volumes.

To devise a way out of the jungle of files eating into judicial time and affecting the quality, a bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and R M Lodha said the time has come for a Constitution bench to firmly lay down guidelines as to the categories of cases that the apex court should entertain rather than get engaged in deciding routine appeals or mundane issues.

The judgment comes at a time when a flood of appeals in the last four years has given rise to huge pendency in the Supreme Court, which for the first time in a decade reported a backlog of over 50,000 cases in March last year. Since then it has been on the increase and on January 1, 2010, the pendency stood at 55,791 cases.

Searching for a solution, the bench found the suggestions of senior advocate K K Venugopal quite valuable. Venugopal in a recent speech had said that the SC should deal with five categories of cases — those involving interpretation of the Constitution, matters of national and public importance, validity of laws, judicial review of constitutional amendments and settling difference of opinion between high courts.

On its own it added two more categories — where there is a grave miscarriage of justice and where a fundamental right of a person is prima facie violated.

It said: “The apex court lays down the law for the whole country and it should have more time to deliberate upon the cases it hears before rendering judgments.”

“However, sadly the position today is that it is under such pressure because of the immense volume of cases in the court that judges do not get sufficient time to deliberate over the cases, which they deserve, and this is bound to affect the quality of out judgments,” the bench said.

It issued notices to the SC Bar Association, Bar Council of India and the SC Advocates on Record Association to assist the constitution bench in framing appropriate guidelines to limit the flooding of appeals.

With the computerization of the Supreme Court registry and use of information technology in the docket management, the pendency of the cases in the 1990s was brought down from over one lakh to a manageable 20,000.

But, the rush of litigants, despite an increased disposal rate, has proved more than a match for the judges, who despite hearing nearly 80 cases per day have not been able to bring it down.

The pendency started creeping northwards since 2006, when it stood at 34,649. In January 2007, it became 39,780 while it registered a steep jump to 46,926 in January 2008.

By the start of 2009, it was within handshake distance of the 50,000-mark as the pending cases numbered 49,819. The half-a-lakh pendency mark was crossed on March 31, 2009.

SC: Bail Plea In 1 Week, Magisterial Trial In 6 Months

AmitAnand Choudhary, To speed up justice, SC sets bail, trial time, March 11, 2017: The Times of India

`Fix Bail Plea In 1 Week, Magisterial Trial In 6 Mths'

Holding that speedy trial in criminal cases is part of the fundamental rights of an accused, the Supreme Court has suggested a time-frame for lower courts to decide a case to ensure that the accused do not languish in jail due to prolonged proceedings.

A bench of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit asked the high courts to issue directions to subordinate courts to decide bail applications within a week and in cases where the accused in custody, magisterial trial should be concluded within six months and sessions trial (for offences punishable by more than seven years) within two years. It said efforts should be made to dispose of all cases more than five years' old by the end of the year.

Expressing concern over alarming number of old cases pending in lower courts, the bench said all-out efforts should be made for their quick disposal. The total number of more than five-year old cases in subordinate courts at the end of the year 2015 is said to be 43,19,693 and number of under-trials detained for more than five years at the end of the year 2015 is said to be 3599.

“Speedy trial is a part of reasonable, fair and just procedure guaranteed under Article 21. This Constitutional right cannot be denied even on the plea of non-availability of financial resources. The court is entitled to issue directions to augment and strengthen investigating machinery , setting-up of new courts, building new court houses, providing more staff and equipment to the courts, appointment of additional judges and other measures as are necessary for speedy trial,“ the bench said.

It said that high courts should regularly monitor performance of judicial officers and the timelines should be made the touchstone for assessment of their performance in annual confidential reports.

“We do consider it necessary to direct that steps be taken forthwith by all concerned to effectuate the mandate of the fundamental right un der Article 21 especially with regard to persons in custody in view of the directions already issued by this court. It is desirable that each high court frames its annual action plan fixing a tentative time limit for subordinate courts for deciding criminal trial of persons in custody and other long pending cases and monitors implementation of such time-lines periodically,“ the bench said.

The bench said vested interests and unscrupulous elements would always try to delay the proceedings but determined efforts are required to be made by the judiciary for success of the mission.

“Judicial service as well as legal service are not like any other services. They are missions for serving the society . The mission is not achieved if the litigant who is waiting in the queue does not get his turn for a long time. Chief Justices and Chief Ministers have resolved that all cases must be disposed of within five years which by any standard is quite a long time for a case to be decided in the first court,“ it said.

It also asked the high courts to ensure that bail applications filed before them are decided within one month and criminal appeals where accused are in custody for more than five years are concluded at the earliest.

Priority hearings for those jailed for 5+ years

Dhananjay Mahapatra, Priority hearings for those jailed for 5+ yrs, November 3, 2017: The Times of India

Chief Justice Dipak Misra has pressed the Supreme Court and high courts to expeditiously hear CJI Mis cases pending for more than five years and decide on appeals filed by people lodged in jails for a similar period.

SC sources told TOI that the CJI, as chief patron of the National Legal Services Aut hority , knows about the plight of poor people held in jails for years, and initiated a unique step that requires state legal services authori ties to provide an advo cate free of cost to poor jail inmates. The serviill be for those in prison ce will be for those in prison for more than five years and the advocates will argue appeals during priority hearings. For this purpose, the CJI wrote a letter to the chief justices of HCs providing them with the guiding framework to deal with a large number of criminal appeals and jail appeals pending in these courts. He said “delay in disposal of these appeals raises a question about the efficacy of the administration of justice as a whole and [the] criminal justice system in particular“.

The CJI's appeal to chief justices of HCs to hold court on Saturdays to hear appeals filed by those in jail for more than five years received an overwhelming response and except for three small high courts, all others have started holding Saturday special hearings to dispose of old criminal appeals. In just nine such sittings in the last two months, the HCs have decided nearly 1,000 cases, sources said.

The CJI is monitoring the early listing of old criminal cases and jail petitions by the HCs on a daily basis and has opened constant communication with these courts to fine-tune the mechanism, sources said. The implementation of the scheme for early hearing of criminal appeals has also been implemented in the SC, they said.

With smart management of case dockets and bunching of cases, besides the extra efforts put in by SC judges, pendency in the apex court has come down by 3,013 cases in just 60 days of Misra taking over as CJI, sources said. The pendency on September 1 was 58,272 cases, which came down to 55,259 on November 1.

There are 161 special leave (criminal) petitions, 2,058 criminal appeals, 2,481 special leave (civil) appeals and 7,854 civil appeals in the SC which are over five years old. These cases will get listed on a priority in the next few months, the sources said.

However, the huge pendency of 2.54 crore cases in trial courts continues to pull down the speed of disposal in subordinate courts, which have a sanctioned strength of nearly 22,000 judges but as many as 5,000 posts are vacant. Of the total pendency , 22.76 lakh cases have been pending for more than 10 years. The CJI will need to devise a plan of action for reducing the pendency of cases in trial courts to keep the litigants' faith in getting speedy justice.

The extent of the problem

320 years to clear the backlog

From the archives of The Times of India 2010

‘It’ll take 320 years to clear legal backlog’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad: It will take the Indian judiciary 320 years to clear the backlog of 31.28 million cases. The staggering admission came on Saturday from someone who knows the way the courts work all too well — Justice V V S Rao of the Andhra Pradesh high court.

‘‘If one considers the total pendency of cases in the Indian judicial system, every judge in the country will have an average load of about 2,147 cases,’’ Justice Rao said. India has 14,576 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 17,641, working out to a ratio of 10.5 judges per million population, he said. In 2002, the Supreme Court suggested it be 50.

‘Court cases increase with rise in literacy’

It will take the Indian judiciary 320 years to clear the backlog of 31.28 million cases, says Justice V V S Rao of the Andhra Pradesh high court. If the norm of 50 judicial officers per million becomes a reality by 2030 when the country’s population would be 1.5 to 1.7 billion, the number of judges would go up to 1.25 lakh dealing with 300 million cases. A recent study indicated that the number of new cases has direct relationship with increasing literacy rate and awareness, the judge said.

Citing the example of Kerala, a high literacy state, Justice Rao said with awareness, 28 new cases per 1,000 population per annum have been added, whereas in Bihar, the figure stands at just three, he said. He summed up the Indian situation by quoting from the journal of International Law and Politics which said: ‘‘The typical lifespan of a civil litigation in India presents a sad picture. Records of new filings are kept by hand and documents filed in court house are frequently misplaced or lost.’’ TNN

2006-13: Pending cases

Cases pending in the Supreme-, High- and Subordinate Courts of India 2006-13

The Times of India

The High Courts with the highest number of pending cases in India, ranked in the descending order of pendency; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Oct 15 2015

Allahabad High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Andhra Pradesh High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 2nd highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Kerala High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 3rd highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Delhi High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 4th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Patna High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 5th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Rajasthan High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 6th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Bombay High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 7th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Gujarat High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 8th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Calcutta High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 9th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Karnataka High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 10th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, October 15, 2015

Apr 06 2015

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges faced by the Indian judiciary is the massive burden of pending cases. As of the last quarter of 2013, there were over 3 crore pending cases in various courts. In the eight years between 2006 and 2013, the number of pending cases increased at each level of courts. The increase, however, is steeper at the higher levels compared to district and subordinate courts. Also, the burden of cases per judge has increased in the SC and HCs while it has decreased in district courts. As of the last quarter of 2013, there were 6,963 pending cases per high court judge. The corresponding figures for SC and district courts were 2,288 and 1,776 respectively.

2006-May 2016

The Times of India, Aug 11 2016

Dhananjay Mahapatra

2.18 Crore Cases Pending In Courts Till May 31, Reveals SC

22L cases stuck for more than 10 yrs

Reasons may be many , from inadequate number of trial judges to lack of infrastructure, but the snailpaced judicial system continues to carry a large chunk of cases that have been on its back for more than a decade.

Statistics released by the Supreme Court say that by May 31, courts across the country recorded a pendency of 2.18 crore cases, of which 27% or 59.3 lakh cases have been pending for more than five years entailing litigants to visit the courts several times.

Of the 59.3 lakh cases pending for more than five years, as many as 22.3 lakh cases have been on board of courts for more than 10 years, the eCommittee statistics revealed. The eCommittee conceded that the national average of disposing of very old cases has come down.

The National Judicial Data Grid statistics revealed that at the end of April 30, there were 27.4 lakh undated cases pending in various courts and it increased to 28.8 lakh cases by May 31.

The states which reported the largest number of more than 10-year-old cases are: Uttar Pradesh -6.6 lakh; Gujarat -5.2 lakh; Maharashtra -2.51 lakh; Bihar -2.3 lakh; Odisha -1.83 lakh and West Bengal 1.51 lakh. Among the larger states, Punjab recorded the least number of more than 10-year-old cases with 1,328 of them pending.

From time to time, the Chief Justice of India on be half of the judiciary and the governments have been resolving to expeditiously dispose of old cases and cases filed by senior citizens and women.But, the message does not appear to have had the desired effect at the ground level.

As many as 7.1 lakh cases filed by senior citizens and 21.4 lakh cases filed by women are pending in trial courts. Karnataka, which had done reasonably well in disposing of over 10-year-old cases, lags in attending to cases filed by senior citizens. States with large pendency of cases filed by senior citizens are: Maharashtra -2.07 lakhs; Karnataka -1.07 lakh; Tamil Nadu 64,018; UP -63,762; Gujarat 49,837 cases.

Highest pendency of cases filed by women has been reported from UP, which has 4.4 lakh such cases.

Other states where large pendency of cases initiated by women are: Maharashtra -2.7 lakh; Bihar -2.17 lakh; West Bengal -1.72 lakh; Karnataka -1.47 lakh; Tamil Nadu -1.37 lakh and Rajasthan -1.19 lakh.

2000-15

Pending cases- 2000-15; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India

See graphic:

Pending cases- 2000-15

2012-14: Pendency in subordinate/ district courts

The Times of India, Jan 08 2016

2012 to 2014: Cases disposed of by India’s subordinate/ district courts; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Jan 08 2016

UP lower courts show the way in disposing of cases

More Than 3cr Cases Pending In HCs, Subordinate Courts

The performance of subordinate judiciary in UP , surprisingly , has mproved considerably compared to other states. Last month they had disposed of 1,04,425 cases as against 76,479 new ones registered. The rate at which pendency has been reduced in the last three years has been impressive too. The disposal of cases by he subordinate and district courts in UP has gone up by almost 2 lakh a year in the last hree years -from 27.98 lakh cases disposed of in 2012 to 31.82 lakh in 2014. Among other states, Karnataka and Kerala have also shown better performance during this period where disposals have gone up from 10.35 lakh to 13.67 lakh cases and 11 lakh to 13.55 lakh cases, respectively.

Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are among those which need to further strengthen their court procedure, to avoid being tagged laggards. The subordinate courts in Maharashtra had disposed of 20.48 lakh cases in 2012, which has come down to 15.36 lakh cases in 2014. Similar is the rend in MP and Tamil Nadu.

The statistics released by he law ministry recently indicate the performance of subordinate judiciary has overall improved in the last ew years. In comparison, the rend in 24 High Courts together show a dismal per ormance. More than 3 crore cases are pending in HCs and subordinate courts together -41.50 lakh in HCs and 2.64 crore in subordinate and dis rict courts across the coun ry. UP still remains at the top with highest number of pendency at 48 lakh cases, fol owed by Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal and Bihar.

2012-14/ 15: Pendency down, except for crimes against children

The Times of India, January 27, 2016

Pendency of cases in Indian courts, 2012-15; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, January 27, 2016

Pradeep Thakur

Pendency down, but up 59% in cases of crimes against kids

Pendency of cases across all levels of the judiciary has gone down, but it has sharply increased in cases of crimes against children, with Delhi recording a 71% rise. In what also points to a spurt in crimes against kids, the countrywide pendency of such cases went up from 74,400 in 2012 to 125,000 in 2014, a rise of over 59%.

According to the law ministry, in 2012, at least 3,500 cases of offence against children were pending in various courts in the capital. This went up to 4,253 at the end of 2013 and to 6,021by the next year.

Maharashtra had the highest number of pending cases of crimes against children, ahead of UP. The western state had 18,000 pending cases in 2012 which increased to 21,255 the next year and to 25,302 in 25,302 in 2014. In UP, such pendency increased from 11,115 to 25,011during this period.

MP ranked third and Gujarat fourth. While pendency in MP increased from 12,159 to 18,080 between 2012 and 2014, it went up in Gujarat from 5,596 to 7,250. In Karnataka, the rise was from 887 cases in 2012 to 3,000 in 2014. The overall pendency of cases showed a down ward trend. According to the ministry , the pendency in SC came down from 66,692 in 2012 to 58,879 in 2015. In the 24 HCs, it decreased from 44.34 lakh to 41.53 lakh during the same period. Even in the 15,000odd district and subordinate courts, pendency came down from 2.68 crore to 2.64 crore.

Though the states have set up special courts under the POCSO Act for trial of such cases, this has not helped as more and more cases have been registered, adding to the pendency list. There are more than 600 special courts to try cases of crimes against children in the country . UP has the maximum with 75 courts.

2014: 3.19 crore pending cases

The Times of India

Jan 13 2015 See graphic.

Pendency of cases in High Courts, District and Sub-ordinate courts:2014

COURTING TROUBLE

Indian courts are known for the colossal pile of pending cases. According to the latest data available on the Supreme Court website, there are about 31.9 million pending court cases in India, more than the population of countries like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and so on. The data also shows that there are sizeable number of vacancies at all levels of courts -19.4% in the Supreme Court, 29.2% in high courts and about 22% in various district and subordinate courts. Among high courts, the Allahabad HC has the highest number of pending cases followed by Madras and Bombay. At lower levels, the highest pendency is in Uttar Pradesh

2016: Pendency of cases

The Times of India, Mar 22 2016

Average pendency of a case (number of cases) and the respective High Courts; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Mar 22 2016

Pradeep Thakur

Allahabad tops in pendency, reveals study

In a reflection of the slow pace of justice delivery in India, a study has found that it takes more than three years on an average before a case is disposed of in the high courts. The study conducted by Bengaluru-based NGO Daksh on 21 high courts has found the average pendency of a case in the Allahabad HC is over three-and-half years or 1,337 days, topping the chart. It is followed by Bombay HC which has 1,245 days of average pendency of a case.

The Gujarat HC comes third, taking 1,186 days for a case to be disposed of, followed by Patna (1,073), Karnataka (982) and Delhi (959).The Sikkim HC has the lowest average pendency of 281 days, also for the fact that the state has one of the lowest number of cases registered. The oldest case yet to be disposed of is of January 1, 1958.

“The study has also reviewed 17 lakh cases in 417 district courts, the oldest case being of November 22, 1931.In the district courts, the av erage pendency has been more than five years or 1,953 days as compared to 1,128 days in HCs,“ said Kishore Mandyam, co-founder of Daksh. The database of number of cases used to arrive at the average pendency days of a case has been almost similar for both district and high courts.

The NGO, which is collaborating with the law ministry to analyse its data, has reviewed 18 lakh cases and 59.60 lakh appearanceshearings from 21HCs.

According to the study , besides Sikkim, the HCs hat have faster disposal records include Uttarakhand, Goa, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Kera a, in that order. Though law minister Sadananda Gowda had last year written to all chief justices of HCs for compiling an annual report isting performances of the r courts -pendency of cases, disposal rates, etc. -and put the same on their websites for public scrutiny , barring HCs of Delhi, Himachal, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madras and Tripura, none had responded to he government's request.

September 2016/ 10% cases over 10 years old

See graphic.

Cases pending per judge in district courts, September 30, 2016; The Times of India, March 29, 2017

December 2017/ 45.51 lakh cases pending in 24 HCs

Pradeep Thakur, December 18, 2017: The Times of India

States and average pendency in High Courts, as in December 2017
From: Pradeep Thakur, December 18, 2017: The Times of India

States and average pendency in Subordinate Courts, as in December 2017
From:Pradeep Thakur, December 18, 2017: The Times of India

‘Some HCs take avg of 4 years per case’

Pendency Higher For Civil Cases, Finds Survey

Some high courts in the country take up to an average of four years to dispose of a case, a study has found. The high courts of Rajasthan, Allahabad, Karnataka and Calcutta are among the worst performers. The situation is worse in subordinate courts where it takes more than an average 9.5 years for disposal of cases.

A study conducted by Bengaluru-based Daksh, which analysed 45.51 lakh pending cases in 24 HC, found that the performance of Allahabad HC has gone from bad to worse. A similar study by Daksh in 2016 had shown that Allahabad HC had the highest average pendency of about three years which went up to 4.32 years in 2017.

Average pendency indicates the length of time for which cases remain in courts without being disposed of.

Allahabad HC, the country’s largest, has the highest pendency of 9.25 lakh cases while Rajasthan HC has 2.50 lakh pending cases but has the same average disposal rate of 4.3 years. The Karnataka HC took an average 4.1 years to dispose of a case, Calcutta HC 3.7 and Orissa and Delhi HCs 3.4 years each, the survey for 2017 found.

“In general, civil cases have higher average pendency than criminal and writ cases in most high courts,” the study said.

The situation got worse in subordinate courts. Gujarat subordinate courts had the highest average pendency of 9.51years, followed by Odisha at 8 years, Jharkhand 6.89 years, J&K 6.88 years, UP 6.75, Maharashtra 6.36, Bihar 6.28, West Bengal 6, MP 5.86 and Chhattisgarh 5.8 years.

The best performing subordinate courts were in Rajasthan where a case was disposed of in 3.67 years, followed by Assam, Punjab and Delhi at 3.86, Karnataka 4 and Andhra and Telangana at 4.24 each.

The organisation also analysed different stages of a case’s progress in court. On an average, a case took 36% of the total time at the stage of evidence, followed by appearance where it took 31% time. The argument stage took almost 18% and framing of charges 7%.

An analysis of the life cycle of a case — time taken from the evidence stage to the final judgment — showed that in 50% of cases, it took longer than 384 days between the evidence stage and the final order.

For this purpose, Daksh studied cases in Delhi’s subordinate courts and found that in two cases, the time taken was up to 4,350 days or almost 12 years. Less than 50% of cases in Delhi’s subordinate courts was disposed of in less than two years, which is the benchmark set by the Malimath Committee.

Allahabad HC: 40 year pendency

Dhananjay Mahapatra, Appeals in Allahabad HC pending for over 40 years, January 7, 2018: The Times of India

50% Of Posts Vacant, Avg Disposal Time 12 Yrs

The Supreme Court’s consistent rulings that every accused in a criminal case has a fundamental right to a speedy trial has been rendered meaningless by the pendency of criminal appeals for more than 40 years in the Allahabad high court.

Crimes committed in the late 1960s or early 1970s and some of the appeals in the high court in the late 1970s against decisions of trial courts convicting the accused are still pending. A recent report submitted to the Supreme Court by the HC revealed that as many as 14 criminal appeals filed in the seventies — 1976 (2), 1977 (4) and 1978 (8) — are still pending final decisions.

In what can dent the faith of the common people in the efficacy of the justice delivery system, more than 13,600 criminal appeals are pending for more than 30 years in the HC, the biggest in the country with a sanctioned strength of 160 judges. In its report to the bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Friday, the HC said one of the main reasons for delay is the almost-50% vacancy in judges posts as the high court has only 84 judges, battling the odds stacked heavily against them.

It was the petition of a murder accused that spurred the SC bench to diagnose and seek to remedy the deep-running malaise of pendency. His counsel, Dushyant Parashar, told the SC that the appeal was filed in 2007 and it is yet to be put up for final hearing even 10 years later. “If the situation so continues in the HC, the appeal may not come up for hearing in the next 10 years,” he said, pressing for a solution to the problem even after the SC turned down bail for his client. However, the SC sought to know from Unnao jail superintendent the conduct and behaviour of the convict.

The SC clarified that “the choice of the HC is only in view of the extent of pendency and the frequently expressed concern over the relatively longer disposal time in the adjudication of criminal appeals before it, which (is also) noticeable from contemporaneous records.”

‘Vacancies slowing down justice delivery’

We wish to state that the selection of the HC by no means is an indication of any deficiency in the functioning or the ongoing endeavours on its part in addressing the issue and ought to be viewed as a step, if possible, to reinforce the same in the espousal of a public cause founded on the cherished right of personal liberty,” it said.

The Allahabad HC’s efforts to deal with monstrous pendency may have been laudable but the factual scenario as narrated by the HC in its report to the SC is disconcerting. The HC said “average disposal time of an appeal is about 11.39 years”. The chart on disposal of cases said thousands of criminal appeals took on an average of more than 20 years to be decided, indicating serious infraction of the right to a speedy trial.

The HC said a large vacancy, coupled with heavy filing of fresh cases and lack of interest among lawyers for early disposal, had a crippling effect on efforts to dish out speedy justice. It says technology could be used in a big way to expedite the disposal of cases. “However, due to a lack of the sufficient number of skilled employees and lack of infrastructure, benefits of having e-courts (paperless courts) is not being utilised,” it said. The SC appointed senior advocate M N Rao as amicus curiae to assist the court in finding a practical solution to the vexed issue.

2018: 10 lakh+ cases pending in 24 high courts for 10 years+

Pradeep Thakur, Over 10L cases pending in HCs for over 10 yrs, March 26, 2018: The Times of India

Top 10 worst performing HCs- cases pending for over 10 years, 2007-17
From: Pradeep Thakur, Over 10L cases pending in HCs for over 10 yrs, March 26, 2018: The Times of India

Over 10 lakh cases are pending in 24 high courts across the country for more than 10 years, many of them pending disposal for 20 years and more, according to information released by the gover nment.

For cases pending for a period between 5 and 10 years, such pendency constitutes almost 50% of the total 42.69 lakh cases yet to be disposed of in all the 24 HCs.

The Allahabad high court tops the list among the high courts with the largest pendency. With 2.67 lakh cases pending for 10 years and more, the country’s largest high court has almost 38% of its total pending cases falling in this category.

The high courts of Bombay; Punjab and Haryana; Calcutta; Rajasthan; Madhya Pradesh; Telangana and Andhra Pradesh; Madras; Orissa and Patna, in that order, are the high courts which have highest pendency of cases older than 10 years.

The pendency of cases have also become part of the political debate with Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeting how the “legal system collapsing under pending cases” with a hashtag #JudiciaryDemonetised. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, said the judiciary should be kept out of the political discourse. He attributed the Congress chief ’s tweet “a result of nervousness after government's notice to Cambridge Analytica for data mining”.

Interestingly, the cases pending for decades have experienced long and repeated adjournments, which are also in conflict with the provisions laid down in the law. According to amendments carried out in the Civil Procedure Code and the CrPC, no judge can give repeated adjournments in a case, not more than three, unless it is extremely unavoidable.

The large pendency of decade-old cases in HCs have little justification, particularly in view of the fact that these HCs together have been disposing of over 1.24 lakh cases every month, of which cases older than 10 years constitute just around 8,000.

140 cases pending 60 years+; 51,000 for 37 years+

Pradeep Thakur, 140 cases pending in lower courts for more than 60 yrs, December 31, 2018: The Times of India

Pendency in district and subordinate courts in India, 1950-2018
From: Pradeep Thakur, 140 cases pending in lower courts for more than 60 yrs, December 31, 2018: The Times of India

Cases pending in district and subordinate courts, state-wise- as on December 25, 2018
From: Pradeep Thakur, 140 cases pending in lower courts for more than 60 yrs, December 31, 2018: The Times of India

66K Cases Stuck For Over 30 Yrs

Rahul Pathak of Buxar filed a case on May 5, 1951, for final decree or judgment. According to records with the National Judicial Data Grid, the case is still at the argument stage in the Dumraon civil court, and the last hearing was on November 18, 2018. The court is yet to update the next date of hearing.

The story, though unusual, is not unique. Similar cases, running into thousands, are pending for more than 40-50 years or so in remote corners of the country. Official statistics show that there are about 140 cases pending in lower courts for more than 60 years, many since 1951. Cases pending for more than 30 years are as high as 66,000 in district and subordinate courts as on December 28, 2018.

And those pending for more than five years add up to 60 lakh.

A recent assessment by the government noted that at the current rate of disposal, it will take 324 years for pending cases in subordinate courts to be disposed of. As per records, the pendency has increased to an all-time high of 2.9 crore cases, 71% of which are criminal cases where an accused may have been arrested and could be languishing in prison as an undertrial. Last month, subordinate courts disposed of 8 lakh cases against 10.2 lakh new ones instituted, generating a backlog of more than 2.2 lakh cases every month, on average, besides the current pendency.

A TOI analysis on year-wise pendency since 1951 shows there are about 1,800 cases still in hearing or argument stages for the last 48-58 years.

PENDENCY REPORT

51,000 cases pending for over 37 yrs

Around 13,000 cases have been pending for over 40 years and around 51,000 for up to 37 years.

Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, accounts for the highest 26,000 cases pending for over 30 years, or nearly 40% of all such cases, followed by Maharashtra where more than 13,000 cases are pending for such a period. About 96% of all such pendency are in six states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat and Odisha. Overall, these states together have more than 1.8 crore cases pending in their subordinate courts, which is over 61% of 2.93 crore pendency in all lower courts in India.

Many of these cases are on perpetual stay while others are simply being given a new date of hearing but never taken up for final disposal — reasons are not recorded. For instance, a case filed on July 2, 1953 by one Bhagwan against Dulari in Varanasi is on perpetual stay.

The case history shows that it reached first hearing date on October 11, 2015, and the next date of hearing has been fixed on January 15, 2019.

A case, ‘Uttar Pradesh state vs Ayoudhyas’, filed on March 18, 1966, reached appearance stage before civil judge Duddhi in Sonbhadra district in September 2016 and has since been given next date of hearing on February 13, 2019.

2018-21: backlog of 30-year-old cases up 61%

Pradeep Thakur, February 16, 2021: The Times of India

2018-21: the backlog of 30-year-old cases
From: Pradeep Thakur, February 16, 2021: The Times of India

Vacancies of judges in courts have been a perennial problem of the Indian judiciary and so has been the huge pendency of cases. The Covid-19 pandemic has further accentuated this with the backlog of 30-yr-old cases alone rising by 61% over the last two years across the country — from 65,695 in December 2018 to 1,05,560 till January 2021.

The subordinate and district judiciary in the six states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat and Orissa accounted for 98% of more than a lakh of these over three decades old pending cases. The oldest of these cases dates back to 1951, according to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG). Almost 2,000 of them are pending for over 50 years.

Overall, the total pending cases in the subordinate judiciary increased from 2.92 crore in December 2018 to 3.72 crore at the end of January 2021, a majority of them added during the pandemic year. Most of these are criminal cases (73%), almost similar to the number of undertrial population in our prisons across the country.

The Niti Aayog, in its 2018 strategy paper “New India @75”, had noted that at the current rate of disposal of cases in our courts, it will take more than 324 years to clear the backlog. Then the pendency was 2.9 crore cases.

Acquittal rate

High rate in Delhi, 2011-15

Cases decided by the SC, Delhi HC and trial courts, 2011-15; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, May 05 2016

The Times of India, May 05 2016

HC: Poor probe led to high acquittal rate

More than 80% of criminal cases decided by the Delhi high court in the past five years ended in acquittal while the figure hovered around 60% for sessions courts in the capital.

Appalled by the high acquittal rate, a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva on Wednesday blasted Delhi Police for its “shoddy probe“, pointing out that “innocents may have been sent for trial and guilty gone unpunished“ because of this trend.

The court's stinging comments came on a status report filed by the police disclosing data of total cases decided by the Supreme Court, the Delhi HC and sessions courts in the past five years.Referring to the “revealing statistics“, the HC bench said, “For this reason, we have been pressing upon the need to bifurcate law and order duties so that investigation wing improves. We also stressed the need for proper scientific methodology , increase in manpower but these concerns take a back seat for governments of the day .“

The police report showed that of 725 cases in HC, 588 ended in acquittal while the accused were convicted in 138 cases. With regard to crimes against women, acquittals in sessions court were over 71% as against 84% in the Delhi HC.

Saying it is “deeply disap pointed“, the bench slammed the police. “People are getting raped, molested, harassed, murdered and acquittal rate is 80 to 90%. Then court is blamed for acquittals that we allowed culprit to go scot-free. But the reason is shoddy investigation by police. It means they have apprehended a criminal but because of poor quality of investigation and evidence, court acquits the criminal...because of shoddy investigation, innocent people get arrested,“ the court noted.

According to the report filed in a suo motu case related to policing and security following the Nirbhaya case, the police revealed that of 14,270 session courts cases, 8,667 ended in acquittal while 5,603 ended in conviction in the past five year.

“Two of the most material things for any human being are life and liberty , which should never take a back seat“ the bench reminded the counsel appearing for the Delhi government, police and the Centre.

The high court asked the Delhi government to file a detailed status report on the backlog of samples, which are yet to be tested in forensic science laboratories and also the number of samples tested in past three years. Zeroing in on the lack of sufficient FSLs as one of the main reasons for delay in trial and mounting arrears, the court said report would have to indicate the number of samples tested in the past three years and the capacity of each lab individually and together. The court will take up the matter on May 18.

As of now, there are only two functional forensic labs in Delhi--at Chanakyapuri and Rohini--and the backlog of samples is over 8,000. A report from these labs is received only after three-four years, the court was informed.

The Centre in its affidavit said that Delhi Police had forwarded majority of its proposals for manpower directly to MHA. It said a high-level committee had been set up to take a holistic view regarding manpower requirement.

Courtrooms, shortage of

2018: Shortage of 4,000 courtrooms

Pradeep Thakur, Shortage of 4k courtrooms even if all judge posts filled up, November 5, 2018: The Times of India

Status report on district & subordinate Judiciary, as in 2018
From: Pradeep Thakur, Shortage of 4k courtrooms even if all judge posts filled up, November 5, 2018: The Times of India

There are just 18,400 court halls available across the country for district and subordinate judiciary at present, a shortfall of more than 4,000 courtrooms if all the vacant posts of judges in the lower judiciary are filled up.

The Centre has set a target of completing construction of 2,730 court halls within this financial year with the Supreme Court making it clear that all the 5,700 plus judicial vacancies in district and subordinate courts are to be filled up immediately. Currently, the working strength of judicial officers is 16,728 against a sanctioned strength of 22,474 judges.

The initiative to fill up all vacancies in lower courts has received fresh impetus after CJI Ranjan Gogoi expressed his displeasure with the manner in which states and high courts have dealt with the recruitment process leading to huge backlog. Hearing a related writ petition on Thursday, the CJI even warned HCs and states of SC intervention to ensure that all these judicial vacancies are filled up in a fixed timeline.

Lower courts currently have pendency of 2.72 crore cases, and judges’ vacancies are seen as one of the reasons. If all these posts are to be filled up, the country would require at least 4,071 additional court halls. At present there are only 18,403 courtrooms available for lower court judges . Even if the government manages to construct the targeted 2,730 court halls, the shortage will remain for 1,341. The SC had recently asked HCs to give a status report on judicial infrastructure required for filling up of all vacancies. The existing infrastructure is just sufficient for 16,728 judges, the present working strength of lower courts. But if all the vacancies are to be filled up within a year, the states and the Centre will have to ensure that more courtrooms are either constructed or hired for the newly recruited judges to function.

A source in the law ministry said the government has sanctioned adequate funds to ensure that the construction of 2,730 courtrooms are taken up on mission mode and completed within the deadline.

The government has shown willingness to conduct a nationwide examination, as a one-time measure for appointment of judicial officers for subordinate and district judiciary, involving a central agency with due importance given to local languages for those opting for particular state as their choice, something on pattern of NEET held by CBSE for medical students. An all-India merit list of aspiring judges will be prepared based on the proposed central selection mechanism. The decision to hold these examinations would be taken only after a directive is issued from the SC which is hearing a writ petition on the possibility of constituting an all-India judicial appointments mechanism, which was objected by several states and HCs in the past.

Alternate Dispute Resolution

2015> 2017: ADR a success

Dispute resolution centres a hit, ease pressure on courts, March 31, 2018: The Times of India

Mediation is picking up as a popular mode of dispute resolution, particularly at the district level, where people are preferring to resolve disputes at the Alternate Dispute Resolution centres rather than courts.

The number of cases referred by the courts to ADR centres in districts have shown a sharp increase in the past few years in some states. Centres in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan and UP have 35,000 to 75,000 cases listed for mediation at the ADR centres.

In a statement before Parliament last week, minister of state for law P P Chaudhary said from 2.07 lakh cases received at district centres in 36 states and Union Territories in 2015-16, it has gone up to 2.91 lakh cases in 2016-17. And in the nine months between April-December 2017-18, it has already crossed 2.59 lakh.

According to Chaudhary, while 53,000 cases were settled in 2015-16, the next year more than 93,700 cases were settled. During April-December 2017, already 77,500 cases have been settled through mediations at the ADR centres.

“Legal Services authorities are engaged in promoting the use of ADR mechanisms,” the minister said of centres set up in states that deal with matters referred to them by courts.

Courts are also encouraging mediation at pre-litigation stage in marital disputes besides civil and criminal matters.

The government is promoting ADR mechanism through mediations to bring down the pressure on the regular courts which are having huge pendency of cases. The subordinate courts in the country have more than 2.69 crore cases pending.

Pendency, strategies to tackle

Courts must follow case timelines

Courts must follow case timelines or take the rap, March 29, 2017: The Times of India

Former chief justice of Delhi high court, A P Shah, shares his take on tackling judicial inefficiency

ON JUDICIAL DELAYS

Judicial delay is often attributed solely to court vacancies. But paucity of judges is not the only reason for pendency . There is an absence of evaluation of courts' performance and specific reasons for delay have not yet been studied.

Vidhi's report on the Delhi high court is a first step forward.Inefficiencies in the system must be examined: the court and other actors are not functioning at optimum efficiency , and the extent to which this contributes to delay must be tracked from the trial court stage itself.

ON HOW TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY

What's troubling is that case timelines are never followed. The culture of adjournment and non-compliance is so deeply rooted that no thought is given to case management. Both the Bar and the bench are equally responsible; advocates use multiple adjournments as a strategic tool, and courts do not adhere to procedural timeframes.

Although exemplary costs are sometimes levied on dilatory tactics, it's mostly ad-hoc and not a matter of institutional policy or practice. It is also common for lawyers to engage in unnecessarily long arguments and for judges to write overly long judgments. Since case management is completely absent, hundreds of matters are listed on one day , and insufficient time is left in court to hear cases. Courts need to implement case timelines and there must be serious consequences for not following them.

ON HOW COURTS CAN AID RESEARCH ON DELAY

Professional managers are needed in courts to improve data management. Judges are still given these administrative tasks.As a result, data collection is non-uniform, defective and, at times, misleading. What Delhi high court has done is laudable but not sufficient. The judiciary needs better data management but has been reluctant to engage external experts, even for managerial tasks. There is a misconception that technology will solve all of judiciary's problems. That is the role of judicial policy-making; technology is a small part of the solution.

Retired High Court judges, use of services

The Hindu, November 6, 2016

KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL

Retired judges to wield the gavel again

It took the government six months to agree to a resolution passed by the judiciary to re-employ them to cut pendency.

The Union government has agreed to a resolution passed by the judiciary in the Chief Justices and Chief Ministers Annual Conference in 2016 to use the services of retired High Court judges with proven integrity and track record to tackle pendency of cases.

The resolution, forwarded by the Delay and Arrears Committees of the judiciary, had been hanging fire since April 2016.

The provision to use the services of retired judges is open to the Chief Justices of High Courts under Article 224A of the Constitution with the previous consent of the President as an extraordinary measure to tide over case pile-ups.

As per the minutes of the April resolution, “keeping in view the large pendency of civil and criminal cases, especially criminal appeals, where convicts are in jail and having due regard to the recommendation made by the 17th Law Commission of India in 2003, the Chief Justices will actively have regard to the provision of Article 224A of the Constitution as a source for enhancing the strength of judges to deal with the backlog of cases for a period of two years or the age of sixty five years, whichever is later until a five plus zero pendency is achieved.”

‘Five plus zero’ initiative

‘Five plus zero’ is an initiative by which cases pending over five years are taken up on priority basis and their numbers are brought down to zero.

The conference minutes considered the report of the committees about delay in case disposal in the High Courts with great concern. “The reports submitted by the Delay and Arrears Committees of various High Courts have indicated a need to prioritise areas of immediate concern in the disposal of pending cases.”

These concerns highlighted in the conference includes: The pendency of cases in the High Court has been stagnant for over three years; 43 per cent of the pendency is of cases of over five years; concentration of ‘five years plus’ cases in a few High Courts; and stagnant pendency figures of five years plus cases (33.5 per cent in 2015) in district courts.

Accordingly, it was resolved that all High Courts shall assign top-most priority for disposal of cases which are pending for more than five years.

In High Courts, where arrears of cases pending for more than five years are concentrated shall facilitate their disposal in a “mission mode.”

The High Courts shall progressively thereafter set a target of disposing of cases pending for more than four years. The Conference had resolved that while prioritising the disposal of cases pending in the district courts for more than five years, additional incentives for the judges of the district judiciary be considered.

MoP on appointments

The agreement on the minutes comes at a time when the Executive and the Judiciary are trying to find a common ground on the memorandum of procedure for judicial appointments in High Courts and ths Supreme Court.

As on June 30, 2016 while the total sanctioned strength was 21,303, the subordinate courts were functioning with 16,192 judicial officers — a shortage of 5,111.

The 24 High Courts face a shortage of nearly 450 judges. Nearly three crore cases are pending in courts across India.

Region-wise

The six worst hit states

The data in this section seems to be for 2006-16

Judicial pendency (roughly 2006-16): the six states with the highest backlog

90% of 23 lakh cases pending for over 10 years are in 6 states Sep 21 2016 : The Times of India

Six states account for around 90% of the 23 lakh cases pending around the country that are older than 10 years, though not all of them are the largest states in terms of overall pendency .

UP accounts for 30% of all 10-year-old cases pending countrywide, followed by Gujarat with 22%, Maharashtra (11%), Bihar (10%), Odisha (8%) and West Bengal (8%).Out of 2.29 crore cases pending in subordinate courts across the country , 22.95 lakh are older than 10 years. In addition, 40 lakh cases have been pending between five and 10 years. According to the National Judicial Data Grid, UP has close to 7 lakh cases which have been pending for 10 years or more. Gujarat has 5.13 lakh such cases, Maharashtra 2.57 lakh, Bihar 2.37 lakh, Odisha 1.82 lakh and West Bengal 1.72 lakh.

Many of these cases remain unresolved in subordinate courts for decades and are reflective of the slow moving justice delivery system.Around 71% of all cases pending for over 10 years are criminal cases where a court is bound to dispose of the matter in a fixed time.

However, of late, the judicial system in some states have shown the willingness to take up older cases on priority. For instance, Gujarat, which has the second highest pendency of old cases, disposed of 9,000 last month -over 6,400 criminal and 2,500 civil cases. UP has performed well too, with 6,600 cases older than 10 years disposed off last month alone, half of these were criminal cases. There are also huge va cancies in lower courts across the country . At least 4,432 judges' posts were vacant as of December 2015. Out of a sanctioned strength of 20,502 judges for subordinate courts, the strength stood at 16,050 last year.

Trial courts: Delhi, delays reduced

Case backlog shrinks in trial courts

30% Reduction Since 2011-End, But No Change In Number Of Criminal Cases

Smriti Singh TNN

The Times of India 2013/08/13

New Delhi: Trial courts in the capital have managed to reduce pending cases by 30% in the last one-and-a-half years. A recent report released by the Delhi district courts on the pendency of cases states that around five lakh cases are pending before the lower judiciary this year as against more than seven lakh at the end of 2011. This figure includes all the criminal cases and civil disputes before the magisterial courts and the district and sessions courts.

There has also been a significant reduction of 50% in the pending cases of dishonoured cheques, major component of the backlog. From 2.2 lakh cheque bounce cases pending in 2011, the courts now have 1.06 lakh. Legal experts say the drop in pending cases is a result of measures adopted by the judiciary, such as the setting up of special courts and the ‘five-plus-zero’ initiative.

Last year, the Delhi high court had asked judges to “identify” cases which have been pending for more than five years and take them up on priority. They were also asked to dispose of such cases within six months.

The circular issued by the HC had also asked the courts to bring down the pendency of ‘cheque bounce’ cases under the Negotiable Instruments Act by 50% before December 2012. To achieve the target, the senior judges were asked to “ensure” that the metropolitan magistrates dealing with such cases are provided with “adequate staff and support from police stations in executing summons and warrants”.

While the targets in the cheque dishonour and traffic challan cases seem to have been achieved, there is no decline in the number of criminal cases pending before the sessions courts. In all, 18,564 sessions-triable cases, which have a punishment of seven years and above, are pending. This figure includes 1,043 rape cases, 47 cases of gang rape and 212 cases pending under the new Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

Even as six fast-track courts have been set up to try cases of sexual offences against women, sources said it is difficult to bring down the pendency in such cases to zero due to the increasing crime rate. “Pendency in criminal cases usually stays constant as new cases are filed every day, and despite regular disposal the new cases add on to the existing numbers,” said a judge on the condition of anonymity.

Also, adding to this year’s backlog are more than 1 lakh cases pending before magisterial courts. These include petty offences in which the maximum punishment is up to three years.

Sources say many measures have been adopted by the courts to tackle the mounting number of cases. Besides the five-plus-zero initiative and the increased number of judges in the lower judiciary, the courts are also required to send their disposal rate in every quarter of the year. Mega lok Adalats are also being held on a regular basis to deal with compoundable offences—those in which a settlement can be achieved.

2015: Pendency 45 lakh in 24 HCs

Trials that took over five years as % of total completed trials in 2015; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, September 3, 2016

The Times of India, Oct 15 2015

The wheels of justice, the saying goes, grind slowly but grind exceedingly fine. In the Indian context, it would be more true to say that they grind so exceedingly slowly that there can be nothing fine about the outcome. When we set out to look at instances of gross miscarriage of justice, we found several cases where people were convicted of heinous crimes and locked up for years before being found innocent on appeal. Given the state of our high courts, this is hardly surprising. Consider the cold statistics first. As of end of June 2014, there were nearly 45 lakh cases pending in the country's 24 high courts. That's an average of nearly 2 lakh cases per high court. This is mindboggling in itself, but pales in comparison to the situation in Allahabad HC, where approximately 7 lakh cases are pending.

The extent of pending cases is only to be expected when you look a little deeper into the same official data. It also tells you that as of end of June 2014, there were 265 vacancies for judges in the HCs against a sanctioned strength of 906, a shortfall of almost 30%. In the case of Allahabad HC, 70 of 160 positions were vacant or, about 44% of the judges required for the voluminous work have not been appointed.

Of the cases pending, about 10.3 lakh in all the HCs and 3.5 lakh in Allahabad alone were criminal cases. Assume for argument's sake that just one in a hundred of these cases will end up in the acquittal of the person or persons convicted by the lower courts -the actual acquittal rate will, of course, be much higher, but even if 1% of those convicted is innocent -then over 10,000 people in the country are wrongly locked currently . They are in jail despite being innocent of the crime they are said to have committed. For a system supposedly based on the principle that it is better for ten guilty people to go scot-free than for one innocent to be wrongly convicted, that is a shocking statistic.

It isn't as if a person who has been wrongly convicted can count on a quick reprieve on appeal. In Allahabad HC, for instance, it takes, on average, 30 years for appeals against conviction in a lower court to be decided. The Rajasthan HC also has criminal cases pending since 1985. In Bombay HC, you could wait anywhere between two and 20 years, but the average time it takes for an appeal to be heard is four to seven years if a convict is in jail and the sentence is over 10 years; and 10-15 years if the convict is on bail pending the appeal hearing.

The exact period of waiting may vary from HC to HC, but in most cases it runs into several years. And if the crime involved is murder, the wrongfully convicted person will be serving time while he or she waits. And for a very long time.By the time they are acquitted, most have wasted their best years in conviction. If this isn't travesty of justice, what is? Here are some real cases. One Ayodhya was convicted by the Gonda district judge for dacoity and murder in 1982 and appealed promptly . He was finally acquitted in September this year after having been in jail for two years and 30 more years under the shadow of a wrongful conviction though out on bail. Getting employment or social acceptance in this period must have been next to impossible. Kanem Anjamma of East Godavari in Andhra was convicted in January 2010 along with her husband for murdering their neighbour G Nageswara Rao neighbour G Nageswara Rao in 2007. Locked up for over five years, Anjamma finally was acquitted by HC in June this year. Kavita Sharma and her alleged paramour, Krishna Kumar Sain, were arrested in 2004 for murdering Kavita's husband and convicted by the trial court in 2006. In July this year, the Rajasthan HC acquitted them. They had spent 11 years in jail.

The loss of their freedom apart, each of these people had to carry the stigma of being criminals and murderers and in most cases by the time the grinding wheels of justice spat out their final verdict, there really wasn't much of a life to return to. That these are not isolated cases, but are illustrative of a deep malaise, is evident from the statistics on pendency of cases. The adage about justice delayed being justice denied has never been truer or more powerfully brought home.

(With bureau inputs from states)

The Times of India’s View The Times of India, Oct 15 2015

The provision of justice is among the most basic of services the state is expected to render to its citizens. The data here makes it abundantly clear that the Indian state has failed miserably in discharging this duty. At a time when all reasoned opinion says India needs more judges at every level than it currently has, how can the state escape the responsibility for vacancies of the order of about 20% in the Supreme Court, 30% in the high courts and nearly 22% in the lower courts?

Almost every week, there's a report in this paper of someone being found innocent by the courts -but only after he she has spent years and years in jail. This Sunday, we carried a report of the Bombay HC declaring a person not guilty of murder -14 years after he had been thrown behind bars, eight of them while his appeal was pending. In many such long-pending cases, the defendants are abjectly poor and cannot afford bail, forget a decent lawyer. Some of them don't even come to trial for years though theirs are relatively minor infractions of the law such as pickpocketing; it's not uncommon for undertrials to spend more time in jail than the maximum term they would have got if convicted. It's almost as if these people are forgotten once they're thrown behind bars.

Since it is the state's negligence that is largely responsible for such delays, it is only fair it compensates those found to have been wrongfully confined if their appeal has taken more than a stipulated time to decide or the appeals court holds that the earlier conviction was a case of very poor judicial judgement. It cannot undo the years of freedom they've lost, or the damage to their reputation, but it can bring some support to those who've lost years of their working lives in jail. At the very least, it should pay Rs 50 lakh for every year lost, to someone who had no income. For those with modest incomes the amount should be Rs 1 crore per year, Rs 3 crore per year for those with middling incomes and Rs 7 crore-Rs 10 crore per year for those in higher income brackets. These sums may appear high, but remember they include both compensation for irreparable harm and an element of deterrence for wrongful confinement or tardy administration of justice.

There should be fast-tracking of appeals, at least in cases like the Aarushi murder. Someone might legitimately ask why the Talwars should receive `preferential treatment'. It is possible that in many other cases waiting to be heard, the collection of evidence and police investigation was shockingly slipshod -as in the Aarushi case -and due process of law not followed. So why should the Talwars not have to wait like everybody else? It's because they've been convicted of murdering their daughter in a case where the unanswered questions are too glaring and too many to ignore. There can be no fate worse than that of parents who may have been wrongfully convicted of their child's murder.First, the grief of losing a child in gruesome circumstances, and then being viewed as murderers by the world. An expeditious hearing is all they seek -and it should be granted.

In the end, the entire system needs to be fixed, and soon.How many years more will we let countless thousands rot in jail -away from home and family -for crimes they haven't committed? More than these people, it is the state and the criminal justice system on trial here.

2016: States with best and best disposal and causes

The Times of India, Jun 20 2016

State-wise judges per million population and pending cases; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, June 20, 2016

Pradeep Thakur

Shortage of judges may not be the predominant factor behind the large pendency of cases in courts across the country as much as their efficiency, says a study commissioned by the law ministry after the Chief Justice of India recently attributed over three crore pending cases to a huge gap in the judge-population ratio. The CJI had sought 70,000 more judges to clear the backlog. The study , which compiled data between 2005 and 2015, lists several states with higher judge-population ratio -such as Delhi (47 judges per million population) and Gujarat (32 judges) -which are still struggling to dispose of cases.

Conversely , states such as Tamil Nadu (14 judges per million population) and Punjab (24 judges) have among the lowest pendency rates, according to the study. The findings also show a huge variation in the av erage number of cases disposed by a judge in a year in different states. In Kerala and Tripura, for instance, the rate of disposal per judge is as high as over 3,000 and 2,800 cases respectively per year while in states such as Jharkhand and Bihar, it is merely 255 and 274 cases respectively as per the working strength. India has an average 17 judges per million population on the current sanctioned strength, though there are over 44% vacancies in 24 high courts and 23% in subordinate judiciary . The current sanctioned strength of the subordinate judiciary is 20,214 judges while that of the 24 high courts is 1,056. The pendency of cases has remained abnormally high at 3.10 crore, as per the last estimates.

“There is no direct relation between judge-popula tion ratio and the pending cases,“ said the study , pointing out how states such as Tamil Nadu and Punjab which ranked lower in terms of judge-population ratio also ranked lower in terms of the number of pending cases.

The highest pendency of cases per million population are in the states of Delhi, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Tripura, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Bihar--all having judge-population ratio above the national average of 17. The top five states have a judge-population ratio in the range of 20 to 47 judges per million population, but still have one of the highest pendency of cases per million population.

Quoting from a previous Law Commission report, the law ministry study said the judge-population ratio was a poor substitute for sound scientific analysis to arrive at the real reasons behind huge pendency.

Allahabad HC has highest pendency

Pradeep Thakur, Vacancies in judiciary, police force plague UP, March 27, 2017: The Times of India

Pending cases in High Courts as on Spetember 30, 2016; Pradeep Thakur, Vacancies in judiciary, police force plague UP, March 27, 2017: The Times of India

New Delhi: The Aditya Nath Yogi government has resolved to improve the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh but two important pillars of the justice delivery system -the police and the judiciary -are in a dilapidated condition in the state. There is over 47% vacancy of judges in Allahabad high court and more than 55% vacancy in the sanctioned strength of the police force in the state.

Allahabad HC, the country's largest with a sanctioned strength of 160 judges, continues to reel under severe manpower crunch. Former chief justice of the HC Justice D Y Chandrachud, before he was elevated to the Supreme Court in May last year, had recommended candidates to fill up almost 90% of these vacancies, but to no avail.

The recommendation got entangled in the standoff between the higher judiciary and the government over the process of appointment of judges. A year later, a majority of the recommendations for Allahabad HC are still pending approval of the government. Allahabad HC, short of 75 judges, has the highest vacancy among all HCs in the country .

Consequently , the HC has the highest number of pending cases as well, a significant number of which have been pending for more than five years and some for longer than 10 years. According to the last estimate, the total pending cases in Allahabad HC was 9.25 lakh, which is over 23% of 40 lakh cases pending in all 24 HCs in the country .

Now, with the BJP assuming power in the state and also being at the helm at the Centre, it is expected that these vacancies will be filled up fast.

A risk assessment carried out on Uttar Pradesh's rising crime graph by the CAG last year had found that UP was at the top among states having highest number of violent crimes, accounting for almost 13% of all such incidents. It also had the maximum cases of crime against women. “Shortage of about 55% of the police manpower, if not immediately addressed, may further worsen the crime scenario in the state,“ the CAG had warned.

Pendency of cases in District courts, region-wise, January 2017

Swati Deshpande, 2.3 crore cases pending in dist courts, 10% for over a decade, Jan 3, 2017: The Times of India

The new year began with a crushing backlog in district courts, with over 2.3 crore cases pending across India as on January 2. Of these, approximately 1.5 crore are criminal cases, and 72 lakh, civil.

The data, compiled by the National Judicial Data Grid, comprises statistics of the district judiciary of the country , but excludes figures from family courts and courts where connectivity is not available.

With 55 lakh cases, 41 lakh criminal and over 13 lakh civil, Uttar Pradesh has the highest pendency . Cases not disposed of for over a decade constitute over 13% (over 7 lakh) of the state's total, with nearly 20 lakh cases, 36%, pending for less than two years.

Maharashtra ranks second, with 31 lakh cases pending in the state's district courts on January 2, including 20 lakh criminal and over 11 lakh civil cases. Of the state's total, 8% or over 2.5 lakh have been pending for over 10 years, and 45% or 14.6 lakh for less than two years.

The data also shows that nationally , cases pending for over 10 years comprise 10% of the total at 23 lakh, while those pending between two and five years constitute 30%.

The majority of the cases -over one crore, around 43% -have been pending for less than two years. Nationwide, the number of pending cases filed by senior citizens form 3.5% of the total. Nearly 23 lakh of the pending cases were filed by women.

Madhya Pradesh and Delhi have recorded a low pendency at approximately 4.6 lakh and 5 lakh, respectively . Only 1% of Delhi's total -comprising 3.4 lakh criminal and 1.6 lakh civil cases -have been pending for over a decade.

Tamil Nadu's district courts have 9 lakh pending cases, but it departs from the nationwide trend in that it has more civil than criminal cases.

Success stories

2017: 4 states, 1 UT clear 10- year backlog

Pradeep Thakur, Cases pending over 10 yrs almost nil in 4 states, 1 UT, Sep 12, 2017: The Times of India

Total pending cases in district and subordinate courts, best performing states, as on Sep 4, 2017; Pradeep Thakur, Cases pending over 10 yrs almost nil in 4 states, 1 UT, Sep 12, 2017: The Times of India

Struggles in reducing 10-year old pending cases, as on September 4, 2017; Pradeep Thakur, Cases pending over 10 yrs almost nil in 4 states, 1 UT, Sep 12, 2017: The Times of India

In Delhi, Figure Brought Down To 1% Of All Cases

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 lead in improving their justice delivery system, with courts managing to dispose of almost all cases that were pending for a decade or more.

Five other states -Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra and Karnataka -are not too far behind and ha ve successfully brought down pendency of 10-yearold cases to almost 1% of their total pending cases. This data, however, does not include cases pend ing 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. Accord ing 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. Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal are still bogged down by huge pendency, including cases older than 10 years.

Gujarat at nearly 20% has the highest percentage of cases pending for over 10 years in subordinate courts, followed by Odisha at 17%, Bihar at 16%, UP at 13%, West Bengal and Uttarakhand at 12% each and J&K at 11%.

The justice delivery system needs a complete overhaul if it has to be made responsive and effective. Automation is the need of the hour where all that is required is to allow an aggrieved person to file a case online from any destination by fulfilling the required formalities and submitting documents.

The government has already put in place some technological platforms such as the National Judicial Data Grid and a court software where all cases are uploaded real-time with updates on the case status available online and provision to update litigants and lawyers through mobile phone and text messgaes.

The worst sufferers of pendency are women and senior citizens, with around 15% of the 2.54 crore pending cases related to them.

Eleven lakh cases filed by senior citizens and over 26 lakh cases filed by women are pending in courts today.

The loss that delays inflict

Compensating for lost years

The Times of India, Oct 15 2015

In most developed countries, a wrongful conviction can lead to the aggrieved person seeking huge compensations. The reason is despite their proven innocence, those convicted find the odds of relocating themselves in society difficult. It's for this that such countries claim an obligation to facilitate financial compensation to the wrongfully convicted.

In our country, the only reward for wrongful conviction is release from prison, never mind if the life of that person has been destroyed after years and sometimes decades in prison, for no fault of theirs.

TOI looks at the state of justice -rather its miscarriage -that is unwittingly functioning towards a more criminalized society than a `humanistic' one. The old aphorism, “Let justice be done though the heavens fall,“ is turned on its head in our country, where the heavens fall on countless innocents who await the assistance of a system that wrongfully convicted them.

Undertrial prisoners

See Undertrial prisoners: India

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-This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.<br/>
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+Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly <br/>  on their online archival encyclopædia only after its formal launch.
+See [[examples]] and a tutorial.</div>
 |}
-[[Category:India |T ]]
+[[Category: India |J]]
-[[Category:Politics |T ]]
+[[Category: Law,Constitution,Judiciary |J]]
-[[Category:Places |T ]]
-=Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu=
+=History=
-==1952-Feb 2017: See graphic.==
+==The history explains the causes (and AI, perhaps, the solution==
-[[File: Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, 1952-2016.jpg|Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, 1952-Feb 2017; [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Gallery.aspx?id=06_02_2017_010_021_010&type=P&artUrl=Its-A-Rocky-Road-Ahead-For-Sasikala-06022017010021&eid=31808 The Times of India], Feb 6, 2017|frame|500px]]
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F07%2F09&entity=Ar01314&sk=283DD4E7&mode=text  Dhananjay Mahapatra, Will AI cure trial courts of 100-year-old pendency headache?, July 9, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+Nearly 250 years ago, the British East India Company under governor general Warren Hastings started ‘Dewani’ (civil) and ‘Fauzdari’ (criminal) court system. The first Law Commission, set up in 1834 under Lord T B Macaulay, did stupendous work towards codification of civil and criminal laws. After the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, the British government acted on the drafts presented by the commission and enacted Civil Procedure Code, 1859; Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Criminal Procedure Code, 1861.
+Codification of civil and criminal laws led to a spurt in court-based litigation which stamped out the traditional panchayat system that provided inexpensive justice. By 1920s, India had a population of 11 crore. Yet, courts had started feeling the heat of pendency. The British set up a commission headed by Calcutta HC’s Justice Rankin in 1924 to study the problem and recommend ways and means to contain pendency, which was spooking litigants.
+In his report in 1925, Justice Rankin said, “Existence of mass arrears takes the heart out of a presiding officer (judicial officer). He can hardly be expected to take long interest in preliminaries, when he knows that the hearing of the evidence and the decision will not be by him but by his successor after his transfer. So long as such arrears exist, there is temptation to which many presiding officers succumb, to hold back the heavier contested suits and devote attention to the lighter ones.”
+Nearly a hundred years have passed since. Yet, Justice Rankin’s finding holds good for trial judges even today as nearly 19,000 of them face a pendency of 2.74 crore cases. One must not lose sight that they decide over one crore cases annually, the number of fresh cases which gets filed every year. But the pendency monster continues to live and spread its rotund belly to choke access to justice and stifle right to speedy justice.
+The first Law Commission in independent India, headed by renowned lawyer M C Setalvad, made a detailed study of the problems ailing the three-tier justice dispensation system and submitted a 1,262-page report in September 1958 to the Centre. It brushed aside demands for radical reforms and suggested elaborate procedural reforms to ease the choke points.
+After Emergency, the Law Commission headed by Justice H R Khanna in November 1978 submitted a report suggesting ways and means to secure elimination of delays and arrears in trial courts. At that time, approximately 4,000 trial judges were facing a pendency of 21 lakh cases. This report said the annual disposal rate was equal to the rate of filing of fresh cases and recommended streamlining of procedures to ease the burden.
+In 2014, Justice A P Shahheaded Law Commission suggested a novel method to compute the number of trial judges required to erase the backlog and achieve speedy justice in letter and spirit while concluding that “judicial system is unable to deliver timely justice because of huge backlog of cases for which current judge strength is inadequate”.
+Till now, Law Commission recommendations and the SC devised mechanisms to speed up the justice delivery system were characteristically a bird’s eye view shorn of recognising the difficulties faced by trial judges in dealing with cases at ground level. The revolution in information technology has provided judiciary with the opportunity to adopt a different approach to empower trial judges to deal with pendency effectively.
+Two weeks ago, CJI Dipak Misra said, “Law ultimately belongs to litigants and we have to ensure that it reaches them timely and effectively.” Apart from the oft-repeated demand for adequate infrastructure and increase in number of trial judges, he acknowledged that “without co- mprehensive range of information technology and communication tools, we cannot expect a state-ofthe-art judicial infrastructure, which will advance the paradigm of rule of law”.
+The solution must necessarily come from those involved with trial courts. A young advocate, Karan Kalia, recently gave a presentation on an artificial intelligenceaided comprehensive software programme for speedy disposal of trial cases to the SC’s eCommittee headed by Justice Madan B Lokur.
+The software developed by Kalia’s team is impressive as it provides relevant case laws to a trial judge instantaneously while identifying its reliability value. It also helps the trial judge note down daily case proceedings, which could be recalled later on at the touch of a button.
+Moreover, the software is so designed that the trial judge automatically gets guided to those portions of higher court rulings relevant to the case she is adjudicating, thus, saving precious time that would have been spent in reading lengthy judgments in entirety.
+Like Justice Rankin had said, most trial judges today are reluctant to take up lengthy matters because they are sure they would not be able to write the judgment for it. However, through Kalia’ system, the judge who succeeds a transferred judge will, at the touch of a button, be able to recall the summary of proceedings that took place earlier, saving him from rummaging through voluminous records.
+Only when technology aided innovative measures get implemented at the first tier of justice delivery system will the rhetoric of access to justice and speedy justice become reality.
+=Causes=
+== Adjournments, if frequent, harass witnesses: HC==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Frequent-deferrals-cause-harassment-to-witnesses-22062016006068 ''The Times of India''], Jun 22 2016
+Abhinav Garg
+The high court has deprecated the practice of criminal courts granting frequent adjournments, leading to harassment of public witnesses who come to depose.
+In a recent order, Justice Sunita Gupta identified this “attitude of courts of sending witnesses back“ as a major cause of “harassment which discourages public from associating in the investigation of any case.“
+The court said, due to being forced to come to court repeatedly , even a public spirited person who may have witnessed a crime avoids joining police and court proceedings.Justice Gupta pointed out that even before coming to court to depose, a witness has been a part of investigation which “itself is a tedious pro cess where a public witness, who is associated, has to spend hours at the spot.“
+Favouring fewer adjournments and a sense of urgency on behalf of courts in recording the testimony of a witness, the court reminded the prosecution that “normally , nobody from public is prepared to suffer any inconvenience for the sake of society.“
+The other reason, the court explained, for a public witness not readily associating with a criminal investigation is “their harassment that takes place in the courts.“ It added that “normally a public witness should be called once to depose in the court and his testimony should be recorded and he should be discharged.But experience shows that adjournments are given even in criminal cases on all excuses and if adjournments are not given, it is considered as a breach of the right of hearing of the accused...“
+Justice Gupta's observations came while upholding the conviction of Rajveer and Rajeev who were awarded a ten year jail term by a special NDPS court earlier. They had filed an appeal challenging the conviction order. Accusing the police of implicating them, the accused said that the absence of a witness clearly casts a doubt on the prosecution version. But the court said there is no reason to disbelieve version of a police witness if other evidence supports the prosecution version.
+== ‘A Culture of delay allowed by mindsets’==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=TALL-ORDER-Hidden-factors-that-slow-our-courts-29032017021015  Arghya Sengupta, Hidden factors that slow our courts and delay justice, Mar 29, 2017: The Times of India]
+'''Study shows why merely increasing the number of judges may not be enough to clear the alarming backlog of cases'''
+Much popular attention pertaining to the judi ciary has been on the vexed question of judicial appointments, a power struggle between the government and judges for determining who has the final word on the judiciary's ideological trajectory and the careers of individuals manning it.
+This has meant that the core issue -unacceptable delays in the judicial system -is sidelined. Delay is mainly seen as an HR issue -appoint more judges and delay will automatically reduce.By blaming delay solely on inadequate capacity , neither the judiciary nor the government is asking the hard questions: What are the mindsets within the judiciary that allow a culture of delay to fester?
+As of September 30, 2016, the Supreme Court has nearly 61,000 pending cases, official figures say . The high courts have a backlog of more than 40 lakh cases, and all subordinate courts together are yet to dispose of around 2.85 crore cases. At all three levels, courts dispose of fewer cases than are filed.The number of pending cases keeps growing, litigants face even dimmer prospects of their cases being disposed of quickly .
+This is the trend across the country . In high courts, 94% of cases have been pending for 5-15 years. In Alla habad, the country's largest and by many accounts, an inefficient court, 925,084 cases are pending. On an average, cases take three years and nine months to get disposed.In Delhi HC, considered publicly as one of the best, 66,281 are pending. It takes an average of two years and eight months to give its verdict in a case. To be fair, delays are not a peculiarly Indian phenomenon. Many advanced countries struggle to provide quick, high-quality justice to citizens. But in India the scale of the problem is unprecedented.
+Focusing on capac ity alone won't reduce delays.A pervasive reason for delays is adjournments. A study by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy (VCLP) conducted on Delhi HC found that in 91% of cases delayed over two years, adjournments were sought and granted. Merely increasing the number of judges won't help because adjournments are acceptable in our judicial system. These encourage delaying tactics, block judicial time, prevent effective case m a n a g e m e n t and impoverish litigants. They deter many from seeking access to for mal justice. Apart from the lawyers, who often charge per hearing, none benefits.
+An initiative by VCLP -Justice, Access and Low ering Delays in India (Jal di) -seeks to address the problem. It talks of reducing government litigation, com pulsory use of mediation and other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. It mentions simplifying proce dures, recommending pre cise capacity reinforcements and use of technology . The goal is to find a way to clear all backlog in the courts within six years.
+This isn't unrealistic. In Singapore, the implementa tion of similar reforms in the 1990s led to astonishing re sults, 95% of civil and 99% of criminal cases were disposed of in 1999. The average length of commercial cases fell from around six years in the 1980s to 1.25 years in 2000. The pend ing cases count hasn't grown substantially since.
+While implementing such , reforms will present chal lenges, it is critical that the public narrative around de lays changes. Delay in courts is not an HR issue -it is a question of the growth of a culture that has made delays acceptable. It impacts our ease of doing business rank ings and hinders access to justice to the mazdoor whose employment has been unlawfully terminated.
+Scarcely has there been an issue that cries out louder for the government and the judiciary to secure the constitutional mandate of speedy and effective access to justice.Arghya Sengupta is research director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy The data in the graphic alongside is from a report on inefficiency & judicial delay (Delhi high court) by Nitika Khaitan, Shalini Seetharam, Sumathi Chandrashekaran of the Judicial Reforms Initiative at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy
+==Government litigation==
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F01&entity=Ar00303&sk=F0B1C664&mode=text  Dhananjay Mahapatra, Stop clogging courts with frivolous cases, SC tells govt, May 1, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+[[File: Cases filed by the central and state governments as a percentage of the total number of cases pending in Indian courts, as in 2017.jpg|Cases filed by the central and state governments as a percentage of the total number of cases pending in Indian courts, as in 2017 <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F01&entity=Ar00303&sk=F0B1C664&mode=text  Dhananjay Mahapatra, Stop clogging courts with frivolous cases, SC tells govt, May 1, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
+[[File: The 10 ministries with highest pendency of cases, as in 2017.jpg|The 10 ministries with highest pendency of cases, as in 2017 <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F01&entity=Ar00303&sk=F0B1C664&mode=text  Dhananjay Mahapatra, Stop clogging courts with frivolous cases, SC tells govt, May 1, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
+''Centre Pulled Up For Similar Pleas, Fined ₹1L Twice''
+“The couldn’t-care-less and insouciant attitude of the Union government with regard to litigation has gone a little too far,” the Supreme Court said and castigated the Centre for repeatedly filing appeals on identical questions of law despite being fined earlier for clogging the justice delivery system with frivolous cases.
+Ticking off the Centre for snail-paced efforts to streamline its litigation policy, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta recently used the NDA government’s reformist slogan of “ease of doing business” to make a sharp point. “Under the garb of ease of doing business, judiciary is being asked to reform. The boot is really on the other leg,” the bench said. Pointing to the collateral damage the overcrowding of the judicial system caused other litigants, besides financial liabilities of the government, the court asked when the “Rip Van Winkleism” would end.
+“We hope that someday, some sense, if not better sense, will prevail on the Union of India with regard to the formulation of a realistic and meaningful national litigation policy and what it calls ‘ease of doing business’, which can, if faithfully implemented, benefit litigants across the country,” the bench said.
+On December 8 last year, the SC had dismissed a batch of appeals filed by the Centre. Unmindful, the Centre filed another batch of petitions in March involving the very same question of law. It was dismissed with a cost of Rs 1 lakh on March 9. “Unfortunately, the Union government has learned no lesson,” the bench of Justices Lokur and Gupta said on April 24 when it came across a third set of appeals on the same issue with an identical question of law.
+'''SC: When will govt wake up to its duties to justice-delivery system?'''
+The bench said it had expected the Centre to take steps to withdraw all pending appeals from the SC registry once the question of law was settled by the December 8 order.
+“But obviously, the Union government has no such concern and did not withdraw appeals from the registry. The government must appreciate that by pursuing frivolous or infructuous cases, it is adding to the burden of this court and collaterally harming other litigants by delaying hearing in their cases through the sheer volume of numbers. If the Union government cares a little for the justice delivery system, it should display some concern for litigants, many of whom have to spend a small fortune in litigating in the Supreme Court,” it said and slapped an additional cost of Rs 1 lakh while dismissing the appeals.
+Writing the judgment for the bench, Justice Lokur said, “To make matters worse, in this appeal, the Union government has engaged 10 lawyers, including an additional solicitor general and a senior advocate. In other words, the Union government has created a huge financial liability by engaging so many lawyers for an appeal whose fate can be easily imagined on the basis of existing orders of dismissal in similar cases.
+“Yet, the Union of India is increasing its liability and asking the taxpayers to bear an avoidable financial burden for the misadventure. Is any thought being given to this? The real question is: When will the Rip Van Winkleism stop and Union of India wake up to its duties and responsibilities to the justice delivery system?”
+Referring to the Centre’s 2010 “National Legal Mission” to reduce average pendency from 15 years to three years and the “National Litigation Policy”, the SC said, “None of the pious platitudes of the NLC have been followed, indicating not only the Union government’s lack of concern for the justice delivery system but scant regard for its own policy.”
+The court said the 2010 policy was supposed to be reviewed and reformulated in 2015. “When this will be finalised is anybody’s guess... Nothing has been finalised by the Union government for the last almost eight years,” it said.
+===2018: govt’s findings; efforts to reduce government litigation===
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F07%2F02&entity=Ar01309&sk=49008EEF&mode=text  July 2, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+To bring down litigation in courts, the government may soon enhance the financial threshold of cases in which it would approach the Supreme Court against an adverse high court order to Rs 50 lakh. The threshold is Rs 10 lakh now.
+However, this threshold will not apply to cases where government policy is challenged and may have wider implications. This is another measure to limit government departments going for appeals after a web portal was set up in 2016 where all litigation across 55 ministries and departments are monitored online, their progress at each stage of trial tracked and final pendency status prepared ministry-wise.
+An analysis carried out by the law ministry last year had found that 46% of all litigation across courts were cases or appeals filed by state or central governments. These litigation included service matters, disputes with private entities as well as disputes between two government departments and disputes between two PSUs.
+The docket of 3.15 crore pending cases would come down if government litigation is brought down. The ministries of railways, finance, communications, home and defence have emerged as the top five central ministries which have the highest number of cases.
+A similar case study by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for the Central Board of Excise and Customs for financial years 2014, 2015 and 2016 showed that it had been filing an average 1,700 appeals annually before the SC despite the fact that its success rate came down during the period from 19%to11%,or for every 100cases filed, the department lost 89.
+According to the income tax study, its field authorities together had a pendency of over 38,000 cases in various HCs with tax effect of Rs 2.87 lakh crore. All its pendency put together had revenue implication of over Rs 9.60 lakh crore.
+==Holidays/ vacations are on high side==
+===Efforts to cut SC holidays stalled===
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Judges-advocates-stalled-efforts-to-cut-SC-holidays-18052016025055 ''The Times of India''], May 18 2016
+''' Judges, advocates stalled efforts to cut SC holidays, say ex-CJIs '''
+Dhananjay Mahapatra
+As the Supreme Court commences its 48-day summer vacation, many former Chief Justices of India said their efforts to reduce pendency by shrinking the holidays were frustrated by both judges and advocates.
+Just a few weeks back, CJI T S Thakur had become emotional while appealing to the government to speed up the appointment of judges to high courts as the huge pendency of nearly 40 lakh cases in HCs cast an enormous burden on judges.
+Former CJIs feel reduction in holidays would be a major step to counter pendency . The 1966 rules of the SC had allowed it to take a summer break up to 10 weeks. The first reduction in the recess happened under then CJI Y K Sabharwal, who cut it down to eight weeks.
+Many succeeding CJIs, including Justices S H Kapadia, P Sathasivam, R M Lodha and H L Dattu, tried to convince judges and the bar association to trim the break.“But the judges and advocates stonewalled any proposal for reducing the break. No doubt the summer is harsh in Delhi. But all others work during the summer. So why not judges,“ said an ex-CJI.
+It was Lodha who wanted courts, including the SC, to function 365 days a year and had presented a blueprint for it. He had proposed that every judge would intimate in advance the major periods of leave he would take in a year and that would be incorporated to chart out a roster for sitting of judges without the SC closing for a day. During Lodha's tenure as CJI, the 1966 rules were amended and the summer break was officially reduced from 10 weeks to seven. “It would be ideal to reduce the summer break to four weeks,“ some ex-CJIs told TOI.
+“The SC closes for two weeks for the winter break.It also closes for 10 days each for Holi, Dussehra and Diwali. The winter break could be reduced to a week and Holi, Dussehra and Diwali could each have three days holiday ,“ they said.
+If the suggestions are taken and implemented, it will produce an additional 50 working days for the SC, the ex-CJIs said. In a year, at present, the SC works for 193 days, the HCs 210 days and trial courts 245 days.
+==Inefficiency to blame==
+[[File: Delayed cases in Delhi HIgh Court, some facta and definitions.jpg|Delayed cases in Delhi HIgh Court, some facta and definitions; [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=INEFFICIENCY-BEHIND-97-OF-DELAYED-CASES-IN-DELHI-29032017021005 The Times of India], March 29, 2017|frame|500px]]
+See graphic 'Delayed cases in Delhi HIgh Court, some facta and definitions'
+==Multiple causes==
+===Not shortage of judges alone===
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Cases-pending-not-just-due-to-shortage-of-11102016012006  `Cases pending not just due to shortage of judges'  Oct 11 2016 : The Times of India]
+Advocating reforms in the justice delivery system, a note prepared by the law ministry  for the forthcoming advisory council meeting of National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms  said, “The linking of problem of pendency of cases in courts with shortage of judges alone may not present the complete picture“.
+The ministry studied state-wise comparison of the judge-population ratio, number of cases being instituted in courts, cases disposed per judge per annum and pending cases and observed there was little to link the pendency of cases with the shortage of judges.
+The ministry said a variety of factors contributed to delay in disposal of cases including lack of court management systems, frequent adjournments, strikes by lawyers, accumulation of first appeals, indiscriminate use of writ jurisdiction and lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, track and bunch cases for hearing.
+States with higher judge population ratio, such as Delhi (ranked second) and Gujarat (fifth) are struggling to dispose pending cases.“Conversely , states such as Tamil Nadu and Punjab, ranked lower in terms of judgepopulation ratio, have comparatively lesser number of pending cases,“ it said.
+The state-wise analysis on civil cases instituted in district and subordinate courts between 2005 and 2015 revealed that their number had come down from 40.69 lakh in 2005 to 36.22 lakh in 2015. During the time, pendency of civil cases increased from 72.54 lakh to 84 lakh.
+“...in 2005, the working strength of judges in district and subordinate courts was 11,682 which increased to 16,070 in 2015. Despite the increase in judges and decline in cases filed, the pendency increased,“ it said.
+===Judge shortage, adjournments, dubious litigations===
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=JUDICIAL-POSER-More-judges-not-only-way-to-08052016006038 ''The Times of India''], May 08 2016
+Abhinav Garg & Sana Shakil
+Uncharacteristic as it was, Chief Justice of India T S Thakur's emotional outpouring at the conference of chief justices and chief ministers in Delhi impressed upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others in the audience that India could not expect to reduce litigation pendency or the backlog of cases without drastically increasing the number of judges.
+CJI Thakur's comments were widely discussed in the Delhi high court too but a scrutiny of the two “biennial reports“ brought out by the court administration in the past decade shows the answer may not lie merely in boosting judge numbers. If lawyers and litigants are to be believed, any effective attack on the arrears has to focus on cutting down on adjournments, existing judges putting in more hours of work and maximising the number of court working days in a year.
+Consider this: In 2008-09, HC had around 40 judges who managed to dispose of 50,000 cases at an average of over 4,000 a month. The following year saw around 43 judges clearing roughly 43,000 cases for a monthly average of 3,600. The second report showed an average of 40.41 judges bringing to a conclusion 40,861cases in 201011at 3,300 cases per month. This rose to 3,558 disposals per month in 2011-12 though the court was hampered, having to make do with just 36 judges.
+The reports may not provide definitive answers, but are handy signposts that show surges and falls in the rate of disposals by division benches. Depending on which jurisdiction of the court the cases were filed under, even fewer benches sometimes cleared a higher number of cases in a year.
+“What the data shows is backlog reduction is judgecentric rather than outcome of a cogent system,“ an insider explained. “The court has failed to build and increase its capacity to maximise output and is dependent on few enterprising individuals to keep it afloat from mounting arrears.“ Senior lawyer Aman Lekhi said the bane of protracted litigation required a holistic approach for a solution. “Staff crunch and lack of infrastructure are big problems but other things can improve the situation. The lawyers' tendency to prolong cases has to stop and judges should ensure that arguments are time-bound.“
+It is not the Supreme Court or the high court that people approach as first resort. Cases begin in Delhi's district courts, where pendency is at a staggering 2.18 crore cases. Statistics show the shortage of judges is certainly a factor for cases dragging on for years, sometimes even for decades, but here too there are other factors at work.
+The varied nature of cases that come before these courts often results in an uneven distribution of workload among the judges. For instance, the number of criminal cases varies from district to district, leaving some courts overburdened and some with very less wo rk. There is also the issue of courts created for special cases.Special courts were created for hearing the coal and 2G scam cases, but no new judge was recruited. In effect, work was redistributed and more cases piled on the existing judges.
+A proposal to appoint 210 more judges for the district courts is hanging fire due to lack of land to build more courtrooms where the officers can function from. An alternative plan to expand space in the six court complexes, according to sources, also cannot be carried out, at least at this stage.
+When cases from other states are transferred to Delhi for fairer trials on the directions of SC, litigation can be a lengthy process because bringing witnesses to depose in Delhi is a time-consuming exercise. The murder case of former railway minister L N Mishra, transferred to Delhi from Bihar, took, for instance, almost four decades to reach a conclusion.
+Frivolous PILs, a common burden for courts across the country , has impacted Delhi HC less after it tightened procedu res a few years ago to screen petitions failing to meet the “public interest“ criteria laid down by the court. In the lower courts, it is a bane. Senior advocate Rebecca John, who specialises in criminal litigation, said, “Dubious litigations are allowed to proceed, adding to the load of overworked courts. Courts, especially superior courts, need to be firm while dealing with frivolous cases and in that I notice a lack of leadership on the part of SC and HCs.“
+An insider also pointed out that the concepts of plea bargaining and out-of-court settlements that can quickly resolve some disputes are not encouraged in India. “In some cases, as in bank frauds, the idea is to recover money and not pursue prosecution. They can be settled out of court,“ the insider said.
+Red tape and multiplicity of agencies have hobbled the construction of additional courtrooms, forensic labs and intake of more prosecutors, all vital cogs in the justice delivery system. Obviously , it needs more than the tears of a chief justice to get the wheels moving.
+===Absconding accused; evidence not given by parties===
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F03%2F25&entity=Ar01108&sk=F41F67D9&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, Absconding accused end up clogging lower courts, March 25, 2019: ''The Times of India'']
+[[File: The main causes of judicial delays, pendency in India, presumably as in 2019.jpg|The main causes of judicial delays/ pendency in India, presumably as in 2019 <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F03%2F25&entity=Ar01108&sk=F41F67D9&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, Absconding accused end up clogging lower courts, March 25, 2019: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
+‘Accused absconding’ has been cited as the reason in over 7,000 cases pending in the lower judiciary, some of them since 1948. More than 2.99 crore cases are pending in district and subordinate courts and judges have now provided reasons for delay in nearly 25,000 cases.
+Parties not recording evidence before trial courts, stay granted by high courts and the Supreme Court, absence of important witnesses, parties not interested, and delay in receiving government documents rounded up the list of top six reasons for delay in disposal of cases.
+Earlier TOIhad reported how over 78,000 cases were pending in district and subordinate judiciary for over 30 years, the oldest pending case traced to 1914. The performance of the 24 HCs was equally woeful with more than 56,000 cases pending for over three decades. The total pendency in all courts across the country, including the SC and HCs, has crossed an alltime high of 3.12 crore.
+As part of the newly-introduced court management system, it has been made mandatory for lower court judges to record reasons for delay in disposal of cases. However, not all judges have been providing reasons. SC and HC judges have also not followed the mechanism. Repeated adjournments have become the norm rather than exception.
+In a case before a junior division civil judge in Buldhana in Maharashtra, a case is pending as the accused has been absconding since 1963, according to reasons cited on the National Judicial Data Grid, monitored by the SC. In another case before a senior division civil judge in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, a case is pending since 1958 because of a stay granted by the HC. A 1968 case is pending for final order before a junior division civil judge in Mau, UP, because of repeated stays by the HC.
+Other reasons cited for delay in disposal included obstruction in execution (154 cases), records not available (175 cases), SC stay (170 cases), complex litigation (253 cases), district court stay (116 cases), failed attempts at recovery (841 cases), frequent challenges to HC (197 cases), heavy pendency in courts (371 cases), and legal representatives not on record (1,106 cases). Reasons have not been recorded for a majority of the cases.
+The first of its kind data has been made available as a result of the case management system called CIS 3.0 (Case Information System), an electronic monitoring of all cases filed across the country with current status. The e-Courts reform was implemented under the guidance of Justice Madan B Lokur who recently retired from the apex court but continues to supervise reforms in the judiciary.
+CIS 3.0 has helped the higher judiciary and the government monitor performance of each and every judge, how much time they spend on each case listed before them every day and their disposal record.
+==Procedural timeframes, non-adherence to==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=What-Causes-Judicial-Delay-25082016018026 ''The Times of India''], Aug 25 2016
+Brajesh Ranjan
+'''Judgments diluting timeframes in Code of Civil Procedure worsen the problem of adjournments'''
+There are around 21.3 million cases currently pending in various courts in India including the Supreme Court. The magnitude of this pro blem was brought sharply into perspective in a magazine article last year, which stated “if the nation's judges attacked their backlog nonstop with no breaks for eating or sleeping and closed 100 cases every hour, it would take more than 35 years to catch up“. How did we get here?
+The problem of delay in Indian judicial system has been studied extensively by the Indian Law Commission over the years. In these studies, infrastructural deficiencies have frequently been blamed for the delay . Accordingly , more courts and more judges are seen as a solution.However, a cause that remains underexamined in the literature and public discourse on delay is the contribution of the courts to the problem by nonadherence to procedural timeframes.
+Specification of time limits has emerged as a distinctive feature of process reforms across jurisdictions that have been able to quantifiably minimise judicial delay , such as the UK and Singapore. In India, there have been at least two major amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure, in 1999 and 2002, which specified timeframes vis-à-vis completion of various processual steps in civil proceedings. But that doesn't seem to have remedied the problem in any significant way .
+'''Why, one may wonder, have the prescribed timeframes not worked in India?'''
+A close examination of the Supreme Court's reception of these timeframes is revealing. Let's look at an indicative assortment of four amending provisions that introduced specific outer timeframes in the Code and their interpretation by the Supreme Court.
+Prior to 1999, there was no limit on the number of trial adjournments courts could grant. The 1999 Amendment fixed an upper limit of three adjournments that courts could grant during the hearing of a suit. However, in the 2005 case of Salem Advocate Bar Association-II (2005 (6) SCC 344), the Supreme Court interpreted this restriction as not curtailing the court's power to allow more than three adjournments.
+This decision has had an active afterlife, having been invoked by tens of high court decisions which proudly proclaim the court's inherent rights to endlessly adjourn.
+The 1999 Amendment fixed the timeframe for yet another important provision which directly impacted the court's general power to extend timelines. It specifically disallowed the courts from enlarging the time granted by them for doing any “act prescribed or allowed by the Code“ beyond a maximum period of 30 days. However, in the same 2005 case, the Supreme Court interpreted this timeframe as one not attenuating the inherent power of Indian courts to “pass orders as may be necessary for the ends of justice or to prevent abuse of process of the Court“.
+In order to curb the practice of non prosecution of cases filed by litigants, the 1999 Amendment also fixed an outer timeline of 30 days for service of summons on defendants. However, in 2003, in the case of Salem Advocate Bar Association-I (AIR 2003 SC 189) the Supreme Court interpreted this to mean that 30 days limit designated only the outer timeframe within which steps must be takenby the plaintiff to enable the court to issue the summons. In other words, the court held that the provision did not specify a time limit within which summons ought to be served on the defendant by the court. Insertion of another timeframe that was pivotal to curbing delays was introduced in 2002. Prior to 2002, a written statement could be filed within any time as permitted by the court. The 2002 Amendment incorporated a mandatory outer timeline for filing written statement by not allowing the courts to accept it beyond a period of 90 days from the date of service of summons. However, in the 2005 judgment of Kailash vs Nanhku (AIR 2005 SC 2441), the Supreme Court relaxed this statutorily prescribed deadline by interpreting it as merely directory and not mandatory.
+It held that courts could use their discretion in unspecified exceptional circumstances to accept delayed written statements. This case has been applied as a virtual carte blanche by lawyers to file written statements beyond 90 days as a matter of course. Thus the exceptional has become the new normal.
+Evidently , in each of these illustrations, the Supreme Court relaxes the timeframe inserted by the amendments and restores to the courts discretion to dilute them in accordance with the courts' perceived sense of justice.
+These illustrations are not merely fragmentary instances. Similar examples of the undoing of procedure may be found for nearly every provision in the Code that contains a time limit. These illustrations are in fact, a sampling of the adjudicatory manoeuvres by which the Supreme Court has unwittingly come to countenance delay , in contradiction to the express wordings and intent of the Code.
+In addition, phrases like “procedures are the handmaiden of justice“, frequently invoked by the Supreme Court, serve as lexical alibis by which departures from procedure are introduced and justified.
+Solving the infrastructural deficit by itself would not reduce delays unless a simultaneous effort is made at reforming this jurisprudence of delay that has been allowed to take root. With over 21million cases pending, treating procedural laws as the equal partner rather than a handmaiden of justice would be a better way forward through the crisis.
+==‘Stay’ orders delay cases # 6.5 years==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Stays-by-HCs-SC-delay-cases-by-up-22062016001054 ''The Times of India''], Jun 22 2016
+Pradeep Thakur
+'''Stays by HCs, SC delay cases by up to 6.5 yrs'''
+Stays on proceedings ordered by high courts and the Supreme Court delay trial by up to 6.5 years, according to a study by the law ministry . Significantly, the average life of a case is 10-15 years. In effect, a case remains in limbo for 50% of its life span because of stays granted by the higher judiciary .
+The study , which covered the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha HCs, found that trial proceedings had been stayed by superior courts in more than 15,300 civil and criminal cases.
+The findings are based on analysis of the annual reports of these HCs. There are 24 HCs in the country , and the data coming out on the number of cases stayed is just a fraction of the total number of cases stayed, a source said. Interestingly , not all HCs are publishing annual reports, making it difficult to ascertain the “accurate and complete picture“.
+“There is no uniformity in the manner in which judicial statistics are being provided in annual reports, making it difficult to compare data,“ says the report. The study has also found that the high number of adjournments result in an increase in the average life cycle of cases. It has analysed the number of adjournments granted in Odisha and Rajasthan. Only these two HCs are believed to have provided such data in their annual reports -that too only for their subordinate courts. In Odisha, on an average 51 adjourn ments are granted in civil cases and 33 in criminal cases. For Rajasthan, the adjournments are on average up to 42 in civil cases and 34 in criminal. “It is to be considered that the high number of adjournments hinders the reduction of pendency as is evident from the figures above,“ the report says. The total pendency of cases remained static at around 10.59 lakh in case of subordinate courts in Odisha, and in case of Rajasthan it went up from 14.54 lakh to 14.78 lakh between January and December 2015.
+The law ministry had recently also asked all HCs to provide data on their longest reserved judgments. The Calcutta HC reported its longest reserved judgment was for over seven years. It was not known if this was the longest reserved judgment as some of the HCs chose not to respond to the government query . The oldest reserved judgment in the Allahabad HC is pending for three years. The Jharkhand HC has reported its longest pending judgment is for two years while two other HCs of Kerala and Gujarat have reported judgments reserved for more than a year.
+== Vacancies in Judiciary==
 '''See graphic''':
-''Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, 1952-2016''
+The extent of vacancies has been taken up on the page [[Judiciary: India ]]
-== Memorial on the Marina==
+=Cost to nation of judicial delays=
-[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F08%2F09&entity=Ar01700&sk=67D54652&mode=text  D Govardan, In the end, Dravidian quartet are neighbours in beach sand, August 9, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+==Cases pendency hitting India’s economic growth==
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F01%2F30&entity=Ar01608&sk=4D5D4B2C&mode=text  Cases pendency hitting India’s economic growth, January 30, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
-[[File: Tamil Nadu’s Chief Ministers’ memorial on the Marina, 1969-2018.jpg|Tamil Nadu’s Chief Ministers’ memorial on the Marina, 1969-2018 <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F08%2F09&entity=Ar01700&sk=67D54652&mode=text  D Govardan, In the end, Dravidian quartet are neighbours in beach sand, August 9, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
-Even in death, M Karunanidhi was a fighter, the last battle being for his final resting place. And when his coffin was lowered into the Marina sands, it marked the completion of a jigsaw, a quartet of Dravidian chief ministers.
+The Economic Survey has made an attempt for the first time to study the backlog of cases in courts which it said is affecting India’s economic activity. The study, which captured government projects in six infrastructure ministries to the tune of Rs 52,000 crore currently stayed by court injunctions, said they had likely cost enhancement of up to 60% during the period of pendency.
-Those DMK cadres who wailed that they’ve been orphaned by Karunanidhi’s death can take heart in that their ‘thalaivar’ will be resting next to his mentor C N Annadurai. And they cannot ignore that his other neighbours are MGR and J Jayalalithaa.
+The hardest hit are the ministries of power, roads and railways. “Since project costs were predominantly debt-financed, it is likely that project costs have increased by close to 60% given the average duration of stay,” the survey noted. The study has substantiated its claims through data collected from the State Bank of India.
-The midnight court battle over allocating space on Marina brought out the old bitterness between Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, but death seems to have mended fences which the leaders couldn’t when alive.
+Despite India jumping 30 places in the World Bank’s ease of doing business last year, the economic survey has pointed out that the backlog of cases in courts is not only affecting economic activity but also making a huge dent on the finances of companies.
-When it comes to MGR, however, DMK cadres don’t feel so bad. After all, the two leaders have been more than civil even after their political split. When MGR was in a US hospital fighting for his life, Karunanidhi had appealed to forget the years of their rivalry (that incidentally kept Karunanidhi out of power for almost 12 years) and relive their years of friendship. In fact, Karunanidhi ensured that MGR got a grand memorial on the Marina.
+The illustrative example of six infrastructure ministries does not include other central or state government projects that are similarly stalled by court injunctions, nor past projects.
-The two couldn’t forget the symbiosis their association yielded: Karunanidhi wrote dialogues pregnant with Dravidian ideology and MGR delivered them to the masses. The party grew, and so did MGR. But Karunanidhi couldn’t allow the star to outshine the rising sun.
+“Pendency of economic cases are high and mounting in the Supreme Court, high courts, Tribunals and tax department, which is taking a severe toll on the economy in terms of stalled projects, mounting legal costs, contested tax revenues and reduced investment,” the Survey observed.
-Had Anna been alive, fell many Dravidian thinkers, the split would have never happened. So, it is only consoling for old Dravidian fans that Anna rests in the vicinity of the other three leaders.
+Creation of tribunals, which have seen a 25% increase in the size of unresolved cases, have not helped reduce pendency in high courts. While the average pendency across tribunals is 3.8 years, it is 4.3 years in high courts.
-Together, the quartet wrote much of post-Independence Tamil Nadu’s political history. Since 1967, the DMK and the AIADMK have alternated in power. Though Annadurai had less than two years at the helm, between 1967 and 1969, his principles of self-respect, social justice and state rights became the guiding principles of Karunanidhi, and to an extent, MGR and Jayalalithaa.
+“The Supreme Court has less capacity to deal with economic cases because of rising overall pendency,” it said. The other reason being the SC has increasingly been admitting more special leave petitions, which empowers any party to approach it directly. Initially SLPs were invoked only in “exceptional circumstances” now they have increased from around 25% in 2008 to nearly 40% in 2016.
-Karunanidhi, stood by Anna’s principles but had his own way of getting things done. While Anna moved away from his political mentor Periyar’s policy of not fighting an electoral battle, he spent his whole political life fighting the Congress. On the other, Karunanidhi ended up aligning with the Congress within two years of taking over the mantle in 1969. But, he remained to social justice and federalism.
+=Supreme Court on pending cases=
+==Curb adjournments, speed up trials, SC tells lower courts==
-MGR, during his ten-year rule from 1977, put social welfare before social justice. Karunanidhi took lessons from MGR and carried forward welfare which soon moved from being popular to populist. And Jayalalithaa mastered in the art of populism, doling out electronic goods and goats with equal ease.
+‘Law Being Violated With Impunity’
+[[File: Judiciary.jpg||frame|500px]]
-=Christians=
+Dhananjay Mahapatra The Times of India 2013/05/15
-==2016: Bishops back DMK==
-[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=TN-Bishops-Council-will-back-DMK-07052016036028 ''The Times of India''], May 07 2016
-Arockiaraj Johnbosco
+[http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP/2013/05/15&PageLabel=3&EntityId=Ar00300&ViewMode=HTML  The Times of India]
-The TN Bishops' Council announcement that it will support the DMK-Congress alliance has brought the Church's fear of the BJP to the fore. Though the BJP isn't a key contender this election, Christian leaders say the AIADMK has an affinity for the saffron party's ideology and could strike up an alliance with it in future.
-Community leaders haven't forgotten the anti-conversion Bill the AIADMK brought into force in 2002, only to repeal it later. In TN, Christians account for 6.12% of the population and most of them live in the southern districts of Kanyaku mari, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin.
+At a time when people are getting impatient with judicial delays, the Supreme Court has stepped in to curb the tendency of trial courts to liberally grant adjournments at the instance of lawyers. It said that trial courts were flouting “with impunity” the Criminal Procedure Code mandate for conducting proceedings on a day-to-day basis after witness examination starts and were easily granting adjournments.
-Without any party of their own, Chris tians preferred parties that backed their cause or promised to take up their cause. The Catho lic Church has su-pported the DMK, barring 2011 because of the spectrum scam and the Sri Lanka conflict.
+A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra expressed “anguish, agony and concern” over adjournments granted by a Punjab trial court in a bride burning case which stretched the process of examination of witnesses to more than two years.
-Another reason for the Church not taking an overt political role is that the religion is highly institutionalised. Many hospitals and educational institutions are run by Christian organisations, and the Church trusts the DMK to protect them.The DMK is perceived to be more supportive of government employees and a good number of Christians are government employees.
+“On perusal of dates of examination-in-chief and crossexamination, it neither requires Solomon’s wisdom nor Argus eyes (mythological giant with 100 eyes) scrutiny to observe that the trial was conducted in an absolute piecemeal manner as if it was required to be held at the mercy of the counsel,” Justice Misra, who authored the judgment, said.
-= Cinema and politics in Tamil Nadu =
+Referring to Section 309 of the CrPC, the bench said once a case reached the stage of examination of witnesses, the law mandated that it “shall be continued from day-to-day until all witnesses in attendance have been examined”. The section provides that if for some unavoidable reason the court was to grant adjournment, it must record its reasons in writing.
-==Some important cineastes- turned- politicians==
-[[File: Some important cineastes- turned- politicians.jpg|Some important cineastes- turned- politicians <br/> From [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F01%2F01&entity=Ar01212&sk=30CC4152&mode=text  D Govardan, January 1, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
+===‘Trial judge can’t be a mute spectator to litigants’ tactics’===
+The Supreme Court expressed its anguish over the tendency of trial courts to liberally grant adjourments. “It is apt to note here that this court expressed its distress that it has become a common practice and regular occurrence that the trial courts flout the legislative command with impunity,” the bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said.
+The bench added that the criminal justice dispensation system casts a heavy burden on the trial judge to have full control over the proceedings. “The criminal justice system has to be placed on a proper pedestal and it can’t be left to the whims and fancies of the parties or their counsel.”
+“A trial judge cannot be a mute spectator to the trial being controlled by the parties, for it is his primary duty to monitor the trial and such monitoring has to be in consonance with the CrPC ,” the bench said. The SC wanted trial judges to keep in mind the mandate of the CrPC and not get guided by their thinking.
+“They cannot abandon their responsibility. It should be borne in mind that the whole dispensation of criminal justice system at the ground level rests on how a trial is conducted. It needs no special emphasis to state that dispensation of criminal justice system is not only a concern of the bench but has to be the concern of the bar,” it said.
+On the case of bride burning and ill-treatment meted out to daughters-in-law, the apex court said, “A daughter-in-law is to be treated as a member of the family with warmth and affection and not as a stranger with despicable and ignoble indifference. She should not be treated as a housemaid. No impression should be given that she can be thrown out of her matrimonial home at any time.”
+===The Times of India’s View===
+Given the enormous backlog of cases in Indian courts, particularly at the lower levels, any measure that helps speed up processes is welcome. Getting rid of needless adjournments is certainly an important step and the Supreme Court must be thanked for stepping in to curb them. We hope that the implementation of this directive will be rigorous.
+[[File: trial courts.jpg|trial courts|frame|500px]]
+==SC blames HCs for delay in hearing criminal cases==
+Apex Court Finds 2,280 Cases Of Rape, Murder Stayed By HCs
+Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN
+[http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?skin=pastissues2&enter=LowLevel From the archives of '' The Times of India '' 2007, 2009]
+New Delhi: Ever wondered why so many accused in heinous crimes — murder, rape, kidnapping and dacoity — roam around for years before the law catches up with them?
+This question bothered the Supreme Court a lot and it found that the High Courts were mainly responsible for such a sorry state of affairs. For, they have stayed the proceedings in these cases and forgotten all about them for years.
+As many as 2,280 cases relating to murder, rape, kidnapping and dacoity have been stayed by HCs at various — FIR, investigation, framing of charges and trial — stages and then left in the limbo, possibly allowing the accused to remain at large on bail.
+A Bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly sought assistance from Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam for collating data on cases relating to the four categories of heinous crimes which have been stayed by HCs after it found an identical situation pointed out in a petition filed by Imtiaz Ahmed, where the Allahabad HC had stayed a criminal case since April 2003.
+The efforts by the SG to collate such cases threw up startling facts:
+Murder cases stayed at various stages by HCs were 1,021 (45% of the total cases), rape cases 492, kidnapping cases 550 and dacoity 217
+As many as 41% of the 2,280 cases were pending for 2-6 years and 8% for more than 8 years. Of a total of 178 cases pending for more than 6 years, 97 were murder cases
+Calcutta High Court appears to be the most liberal when it came to staying cases relating to heinous crimes accounting for 31% of the 2,280 cases. Allahabad High Court was not far behind having stayed 29% of the cases
+In most of the cases across the HCs, the duration for which the case is pending varied from 1 to 4 years. It is seen that 34 out of 201 cases in Patna HC and 33 out of 653 cases in Allahabad HC were pending for more than 8 years
+After perusing the enormity of the situation and having regard to the case in hand that related to Allahabad HC, the Bench headed by Justice Singhvi requested the counsel for the High Court to furnish data about the number of cases which have been stayed at the stage of investigation or trial and listed the matter for further hearing on July 9.
+The report was submitted to the court by Subramaniam, who took assistance of Dr Pronab Sen and Dr G S Manna, secretary and deputy director in the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, in studying the data supplied by various HCs.
+The SG, in the concluding part of the report, said “the fact-finding exercise by the Supreme Court has revealed a problem of serious dimension” and suggested that the apex court would be well within its jurisdiction to direct the HCs to dispose of the matter within a year from the date of grant of stay in cases relating to heinous crimes.
+If a case was not disposed of within a year, the concerned judge must record the reasons which should be communicated to the concerned chief justice of the HC, Subramaniam suggested.
+==SC: ‘Flood of appeals affecting verdicts’==
+[http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?skin=pastissues2&enter=LowLevel From the archives of '' The Times of India '' 2010]
+''' Pressure Does Not Give Judges Enough Time To Deliberate Upon Cases: SC '''
+Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN
+New Delhi: A concern expressed in hushed voices by senior lawyers for quite some time in the corridors of the apex court has now become official.
+The Supreme Court has admitted that deluge of appeals is affecting the quality of its judgments, which are abided by all and sundry as the law of the land.
+It does not want the apex court, set up to decide constitutional issues and inter-state disputes in addition to giving opinion to the President on tricky legal questions, to get reduced to just a final court of appeal being mired in the volumes.
+To devise a way out of the jungle of files eating into judicial time and affecting the quality, a bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and R M Lodha said the time has come for a Constitution bench to firmly lay down guidelines as to the categories of cases that the apex court should entertain rather than get engaged in deciding routine appeals or mundane issues.
+The judgment comes at a time when a flood of appeals in the last four years has given rise to huge pendency in the Supreme Court, which for the first time in a decade reported a backlog of over 50,000 cases in March last year. Since then it has been on the increase and on January 1, 2010, the pendency stood at 55,791 cases.
+Searching for a solution, the bench found the suggestions of senior advocate K K Venugopal quite valuable. Venugopal in a recent speech had said that the SC should deal with five categories of cases — those involving interpretation of the Constitution, matters of national and public importance, validity of laws, judicial review of constitutional amendments and settling difference of opinion between high courts.
+On its own it added two more categories — where there is a grave miscarriage of justice and where a fundamental right of a person is prima facie violated.
+It said: “The apex court lays down the law for the whole country and it should have more time to deliberate upon the cases it hears before rendering judgments.”
+“However, sadly the position today is that it is under such pressure because of the immense volume of cases in the court that judges do not get sufficient time to deliberate over the cases, which they deserve, and this is bound to affect the quality of out judgments,” the bench said.
+It issued notices to the SC Bar Association, Bar Council of India and the SC Advocates on Record Association to assist the constitution bench in framing appropriate guidelines to limit the flooding of appeals.
+With the computerization of the Supreme Court registry and use of information technology in the docket management, the pendency of the cases in the 1990s was brought down from over one lakh to a manageable 20,000.
+But, the rush of litigants, despite an increased disposal rate, has proved more than a match for the judges, who despite hearing nearly 80 cases per day have not been able to bring it down.
+The pendency started creeping northwards since 2006, when it stood at 34,649. In January 2007, it became 39,780 while it registered a steep jump to 46,926 in January 2008.
+By the start of 2009, it was within handshake distance of the 50,000-mark as the pending cases numbered 49,819. The half-a-lakh pendency mark was crossed on March 31, 2009.
+==SC: Bail Plea In 1 Week, Magisterial Trial In 6 Months==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=To-speed-up-justice-SC-sets-bail-trial-11032017011009  AmitAnand Choudhary, To speed up justice, SC sets bail, trial time, March 11, 2017: The Times of India]
+''' `Fix Bail Plea In 1 Week, Magisterial Trial In 6 Mths' '''
+Holding that speedy trial in criminal cases is part of the fundamental rights of an accused, the Supreme Court has suggested a time-frame for lower courts to decide a case to ensure that the accused do not languish in jail due to prolonged proceedings.
+A bench of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit asked the high courts to issue directions to subordinate courts to decide bail applications within a week and in cases where the accused in custody, magisterial trial should be concluded within six months and sessions trial (for offences punishable by more than seven years) within two years. It said efforts should be made to dispose of all cases more than five years' old by the end of the year.
+Expressing concern over alarming number of old cases pending in lower courts, the bench said all-out efforts should be made for their quick disposal. The total number of more than five-year old cases in subordinate courts at the end of the year 2015 is said to be 43,19,693 and number of under-trials detained for more than five years at the end of the year 2015 is said to be 3599.
+“Speedy trial is a part of reasonable, fair and just procedure guaranteed under Article 21. This Constitutional right cannot be denied even on the plea of non-availability of financial resources. The court is entitled to issue directions to augment and strengthen investigating machinery , setting-up of new courts, building new court houses, providing more staff and equipment to the courts, appointment of additional judges and other measures as are necessary for speedy trial,“ the bench said.
+It said that high courts should regularly monitor performance of judicial officers and the timelines should be made the touchstone for assessment of their performance in annual confidential reports.
+“We do consider it necessary to direct that steps be taken forthwith by all concerned to effectuate the mandate of the fundamental right un der Article 21 especially with regard to persons in custody in view of the directions already issued by this court. It is desirable that each high court frames its annual action plan fixing a tentative time limit for subordinate courts for deciding criminal trial of persons in custody and other long pending cases and monitors implementation of such time-lines periodically,“ the bench said.
+The bench said vested interests and unscrupulous elements would always try to delay the proceedings but determined efforts are required to be made by the judiciary for success of the mission.
+“Judicial service as well as legal service are not like any other services. They are missions for serving the society . The mission is not achieved if the litigant who is waiting in the queue does not get his turn for a long time. Chief Justices and Chief Ministers have resolved that all cases must be disposed of within five years which by any standard is quite a long time for a case to be decided in the first court,“ it said.
+It also asked the high courts to ensure that bail applications filed before them are decided within one month and criminal appeals where accused are in custody for more than five years are concluded at the earliest.
+==Priority hearings for those jailed for 5+ years==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Priority-hearings-for-those-jailed-for-5-yrs-03112017001054  Dhananjay Mahapatra, Priority hearings for those jailed for 5+ yrs, November 3, 2017: The Times of India]
+Chief Justice Dipak Misra has pressed the Supreme Court and high courts to expeditiously hear CJI Mis cases pending for more than five years and decide on appeals filed by people lodged in jails for a similar period.
+SC sources told TOI that the CJI, as chief patron of the National Legal Services Aut hority , knows about the plight of poor people held in jails for years, and initiated a unique step that requires state legal services authori ties to provide an advo cate free of cost to poor jail inmates. The serviill be for those in prison ce will be for those in prison for more than five years and the advocates will argue appeals during priority hearings. For this purpose, the CJI wrote a letter to the chief justices of HCs providing them with the guiding framework to deal with a large number of criminal appeals and jail appeals pending in these courts. He said “delay in disposal of these appeals raises a question about the efficacy of the administration of justice as a whole and [the] criminal justice system in particular“.
+The CJI's appeal to chief justices of HCs to hold court on Saturdays to hear appeals filed by those in jail for more than five years received an overwhelming response and except for three small high courts, all others have started holding Saturday special hearings to dispose of old criminal appeals. In just nine such sittings in the last two months, the HCs have decided nearly 1,000 cases, sources said.
+The CJI is monitoring the early listing of old criminal cases and jail petitions by the HCs on a daily basis and has opened constant communication with these courts to fine-tune the mechanism, sources said. The implementation of the scheme for early hearing of criminal appeals has also been implemented in the SC, they said.
+With smart management of case dockets and bunching of cases, besides the extra efforts put in by SC judges, pendency in the apex court has come down by 3,013 cases in just 60 days of Misra taking over as CJI, sources said. The pendency on September 1 was 58,272 cases, which came down to 55,259 on November 1.
+There are 161 special leave (criminal) petitions, 2,058 criminal appeals, 2,481 special leave (civil) appeals and 7,854 civil appeals in the SC which are over five years old. These cases will get listed on a priority in the next few months, the sources said.
+However, the huge pendency of 2.54 crore cases in trial courts continues to pull down the speed of disposal in subordinate courts, which have a sanctioned strength of nearly 22,000 judges but as many as 5,000 posts are vacant. Of the total pendency , 22.76 lakh cases have been pending for more than 10 years. The CJI will need to devise a plan of action for reducing the pendency of cases in trial courts to keep the litigants' faith in getting speedy justice.
+=The extent of the problem=
+==320 years to clear the backlog==
+[http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?skin=pastissues2&enter=LowLevel From the archives of '' The Times of India '' 2010]
+''' ‘It’ll take 320 years to clear legal backlog’ '''
+TIMES NEWS NETWORK
+Hyderabad: It will take the Indian judiciary 320 years to clear the backlog of 31.28 million cases. The staggering admission came on Saturday from someone who knows the way the courts work all too well — Justice V V S Rao of the Andhra Pradesh high court.
+‘‘If one considers the total pendency of cases in the Indian judicial system, every judge in the country will have an average load of about 2,147 cases,’’ Justice Rao said. India has 14,576 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 17,641, working out to a ratio of 10.5 judges per million population, he said. In 2002, the Supreme Court suggested it be 50.
+===‘Court cases increase with rise in literacy’===
+It will take the Indian judiciary 320 years to clear the backlog of 31.28 million cases, says Justice V V S Rao of the Andhra Pradesh high court. If the norm of 50 judicial officers per million becomes a reality by 2030 when the country’s population would be 1.5 to 1.7 billion, the number of judges would go up to 1.25 lakh dealing with 300 million cases. A recent study indicated that the number of new cases has direct relationship with increasing literacy rate and awareness, the judge said.
+Citing the example of Kerala, a high literacy state, Justice Rao said with awareness, 28 new cases per 1,000 population per annum have been added, whereas in Bihar, the figure stands at just three, he said. He summed up the Indian situation by quoting from the journal of International Law and Politics which said: ‘‘The typical lifespan of a civil litigation in India presents a sad picture. Records of new filings are kept by hand and documents filed in court house are frequently misplaced or lost.’’ TNN
+==2006-13: Pending cases==
+[[File: cases pending in the supreme high and subordinate courts of India.jpg|Cases pending in the Supreme-, High- and Subordinate Courts of India  2006-13|frame|500px]]
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=STATOISTICS-JUSTICE-DELAYED-06042015007011 ''The Times of India'']
+[[File: The High Courts with the highest number of pending cases in India, ranked in the descending order of pendency of cases.jpg|The High Courts with the highest number of pending cases in India, ranked in the descending order of pendency; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], Oct 15 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Allahabad High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg|Allahabad High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Andhra Pradesh High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg|Andhra Pradesh High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 2nd highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Kerala High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg|Kerala High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 3rd highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Delhi High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg| Delhi High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 4th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Patna High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg| Patna High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 5th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Rajasthan High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg| Rajasthan High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 6th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Bombay High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg| Bombay High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 7th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Gujarat High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg| Gujarat High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 8th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Calcutta High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg| Calcutta High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 9th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+[[File: Karnataka High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases.jpg| Karnataka High Court, number of pending cases, average time to hear criminal appeals, and some illustrative cases. The figure at top left shows that it has the 10th highest number of pending cases among 24 Indian HCs; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], October 15, 2015|frame|500px]]
+Apr 06 2015
+Perhaps one of the biggest challenges faced by the Indian judiciary is the massive burden of pending cases. As of the last quarter of 2013, there were over 3 crore pending cases in various courts. In the eight years between 2006 and 2013, the number of pending cases increased at each level of courts. The increase, however, is steeper at the higher levels compared to district and subordinate courts. Also, the burden of cases per judge has increased in the SC and HCs while it has decreased in district courts. As of the last quarter of 2013, there were 6,963 pending cases per high court judge. The corresponding figures for SC and district courts were 2,288 and 1,776 respectively.
+==2006-May 2016==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=22L-cases-stuck-for-more-than-10-yrs-11082016009022 ''The Times of India''], Aug 11 2016
+Dhananjay Mahapatra
+'''2.18 Crore Cases Pending In Courts Till May 31, Reveals SC'''
+''22L cases stuck for more than 10 yrs''
+Reasons may be many , from inadequate number of trial judges to lack of infrastructure, but the snailpaced judicial system continues to carry a large chunk of cases that have been on its back for more than a decade.
+Statistics released by the Supreme Court say that by May 31, courts across the country recorded a pendency of 2.18 crore cases, of which 27% or 59.3 lakh cases have been pending for more than five years entailing litigants to visit the courts several times.
+Of the 59.3 lakh cases pending for more than five years, as many as 22.3 lakh cases have been on board of courts for more than 10 years, the eCommittee statistics revealed. The eCommittee conceded that the national average of disposing of very old cases has come down.
+The National Judicial Data Grid statistics revealed that at the end of April 30, there were 27.4 lakh undated cases pending in various courts and it increased to 28.8 lakh cases by May 31.
+The states which reported the largest number of more than 10-year-old cases are: Uttar Pradesh -6.6 lakh; Gujarat -5.2 lakh; Maharashtra -2.51 lakh; Bihar -2.3 lakh; Odisha -1.83 lakh and West Bengal 1.51 lakh. Among the larger states, Punjab recorded the least number of more than 10-year-old cases with 1,328 of them pending.
+From time to time, the Chief Justice of India on be half of the judiciary and the governments have been resolving to expeditiously dispose of old cases and cases filed by senior citizens and women.But, the message does not appear to have had the desired effect at the ground level.
+As many as 7.1 lakh cases filed by senior citizens and 21.4 lakh cases filed by women are pending in trial courts. Karnataka, which had done reasonably well in disposing of over 10-year-old cases, lags in attending to cases filed by senior citizens. States with large pendency of cases filed by senior citizens are: Maharashtra -2.07 lakhs; Karnataka -1.07 lakh; Tamil Nadu 64,018; UP -63,762; Gujarat 49,837 cases.
+Highest pendency of cases filed by women has been reported from UP, which has 4.4 lakh such cases.
+Other states where large pendency of cases initiated by women are: Maharashtra -2.7 lakh; Bihar -2.17 lakh; West Bengal -1.72 lakh; Karnataka -1.47 lakh; Tamil Nadu -1.37 lakh and Rajasthan -1.19 lakh.
+==2000-15==
+[[File: pending cases.jpg|Pending cases- 2000-15; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Unlike-Salman-60-of-undertrials-spend-3-months-11052015006014 ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
 '''See graphic''':
-''Some important cineastes- turned- politicians''
+''Pending cases- 2000-15''
+==2012-14: Pendency in subordinate/ district courts==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=UP-lower-courts-show-the-way-in-disposing-08012016014042 ''The Times of India''], Jan 08 2016
+[[File: 2012 to 2014, Cases disposed of by India’s subordinate and district courts.jpg|2012 to 2014: Cases disposed of by India’s subordinate/ district courts; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=UP-lower-courts-show-the-way-in-disposing-08012016014042 ''The Times of India''], Jan 08 2016|frame|500px]]
+'''UP lower courts show the way in disposing of cases'''
+''More Than 3cr Cases Pending In HCs, Subordinate Courts''
+The performance of subordinate judiciary in UP , surprisingly , has mproved considerably compared to other states. Last month they had disposed of 1,04,425 cases as against 76,479 new ones registered. The rate at which pendency has been reduced in the last three years has been impressive too.
+The disposal of cases by he subordinate and district courts in UP has gone up by almost 2 lakh a year in the last hree years -from 27.98 lakh cases disposed of in 2012 to 31.82 lakh in 2014. Among other states, Karnataka and Kerala have also shown better performance during this period where disposals have gone up from 10.35 lakh to 13.67 lakh cases and 11 lakh to 13.55 lakh cases, respectively.
+Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are among those which need to further strengthen their court procedure, to avoid being tagged laggards. The subordinate courts in Maharashtra had disposed of 20.48 lakh cases in 2012, which has come down to 15.36 lakh cases in 2014. Similar is the rend in MP and Tamil Nadu.
+The statistics released by he law ministry recently indicate the performance of subordinate judiciary has overall improved in the last ew years. In comparison, the rend in 24 High Courts together show a dismal per ormance. More than 3 crore cases are pending in HCs and subordinate courts together -41.50 lakh in HCs and 2.64 crore in subordinate and dis rict courts across the coun ry. UP still remains at the top with highest number of pendency at 48 lakh cases, fol owed by Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal and Bihar.
+==2012-14/ 15: Pendency down, except for crimes against children==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Pendency-down-but-up-59-in-cases-of-27012016001057 ''The Times of India''], January 27, 2016
+[[File: Pendency of cases in Indian courts, 2012-15.jpg| Pendency of cases in Indian courts, 2012-15; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Pendency-down-but-up-59-in-cases-of-27012016001057 ''The Times of India''], January 27, 2016|frame|500px]]
+Pradeep Thakur
+'''Pendency down, but up 59% in cases of crimes against kids'''
+Pendency of cases across all levels of the judiciary has gone down, but it has sharply increased in cases of crimes against children, with Delhi recording a 71% rise.
+In what also points to a spurt in crimes against kids, the countrywide pendency of such cases went up from 74,400 in 2012 to 125,000 in 2014, a rise of over 59%.
+According to the law ministry, in 2012, at least 3,500 cases of offence against children were pending in various courts in the capital. This went up to 4,253 at the end of 2013 and to 6,021by the next year.
+Maharashtra had the highest number of pending cases of crimes against children, ahead of UP. The western state had 18,000 pending cases in 2012 which increased to 21,255 the next year and to 25,302 in 25,302 in 2014. In UP, such pendency increased from 11,115 to 25,011during this period.
+MP ranked third and Gujarat fourth. While pendency in MP increased from 12,159 to 18,080 between 2012 and 2014, it went up in Gujarat from 5,596 to 7,250. In Karnataka, the rise was from 887 cases in 2012 to 3,000 in 2014. The overall pendency of cases showed a down ward trend. According to the ministry , the pendency in SC came down from 66,692 in 2012 to 58,879 in 2015. In the 24 HCs, it decreased from 44.34 lakh to 41.53 lakh during the same period. Even in the 15,000odd district and subordinate courts, pendency came down from 2.68 crore to 2.64 crore.
+Though the states have set up special courts under the POCSO Act for trial of such cases, this has not helped as more and more cases have been registered, adding to the pendency list. There are more than 600 special courts to try cases of crimes against children in the country . UP has the maximum with 75 courts.
+==2014: 3.19 crore pending cases==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=STATOISTICS-COURTING-TROUBLE-13012015008010 ''The Times of India'']
+Jan 13 2015
+See graphic.
+[[File: pendency of cases.jpg| Pendency of cases in High Courts, District and Sub-ordinate courts:2014 |frame|500px]]
+''' COURTING TROUBLE '''
+Indian courts are known for the colossal pile of pending cases. According to the latest data available on the Supreme Court website, there are about 31.9 million pending court cases in India, more than the population of countries like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and so on. The data also shows that there are sizeable number of vacancies at all levels of courts -19.4% in the Supreme Court, 29.2% in high courts and about 22% in various district and subordinate courts. Among high courts, the Allahabad HC has the highest number of pending cases followed by Madras and Bombay. At lower levels, the highest pendency is in Uttar Pradesh
+==2016: Pendency of cases==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=HCs-taking-3-yrs-on-avg-to-decide-22032016015032 ''The Times of India''], Mar 22 2016
+[[File: Average pendency of a case (number of cases) and the respective High Courts.jpg| Average pendency of a case (number of cases) and the respective High Courts; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=HCs-taking-3-yrs-on-avg-to-decide-22032016015032 ''The Times of India''], Mar 22 2016|frame|500px]]
+Pradeep Thakur
+''' Allahabad tops in pendency, reveals study '''
+In a reflection of the slow pace of justice delivery in India, a study has found that it takes more than three years on an average before a case is disposed of in the high courts.
+The study conducted by Bengaluru-based NGO Daksh on 21 high courts has found the average pendency of a case in the Allahabad HC is over three-and-half years or 1,337 days, topping the chart. It is followed by Bombay HC which has 1,245 days of average pendency of a case.
+The Gujarat HC comes third, taking 1,186 days for a case to be disposed of, followed by Patna (1,073), Karnataka (982) and Delhi (959).The Sikkim HC has the lowest average pendency of 281 days, also for the fact that the state has one of the lowest number of cases registered. The oldest case yet to be disposed of is of January 1, 1958.
+“The study has also reviewed 17 lakh cases in 417 district courts, the oldest case being of November 22, 1931.In the district courts, the av erage pendency has been more than five years or 1,953 days as compared to 1,128 days in HCs,“ said Kishore Mandyam, co-founder of Daksh. The database of number of cases used to arrive at the average pendency days of a case has been almost similar for both district and high courts.
+The NGO, which is collaborating with the law ministry to analyse its data, has reviewed 18 lakh cases and 59.60 lakh appearanceshearings from 21HCs.
+According to the study , besides Sikkim, the HCs hat have faster disposal records include Uttarakhand, Goa, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Kera a, in that order. Though law minister Sadananda Gowda had last year written to all chief justices of HCs for compiling an annual report isting performances of the r courts -pendency of cases, disposal rates, etc. -and put the same on their websites for public scrutiny , barring HCs of Delhi, Himachal, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madras and Tripura, none had responded to he government's request.
+==September 2016/ 10% cases over 10 years old ==
+See graphic.
+[[File: Cases pending per judge in district courts, September 30, 2016.jpg|Cases pending per judge in district courts, September 30, 2016; [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=10-OF-CASES-PENDING-IN-INDIAS-LOWER-COURTS-29032017021032 The Times of India], March 29, 2017|frame|500px]]
+==December 2017/ 45.51 lakh cases pending in 24 HCs==
+[http://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2017%2F12%2F18&entity=Ar01203&sk=0060305B&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, December 18, 2017: ''The Times of India'']
+[[File: States and average pendency in High Courts, as in December 2017.jpg|States and average pendency in High Courts, as in December 2017 <br/> From: [http://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2017%2F12%2F18&entity=Ar01203&sk=0060305B&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, December 18, 2017: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
+[[File: States and average pendency in Subordinate Courts, as in December 2017.jpg|States and average pendency in Subordinate Courts, as in December 2017 <br/> From:[http://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2017%2F12%2F18&entity=Ar00316&sk=D4B38D2E&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, December 18, 2017: ''The Times of India''] |frame|500px]]
+''' ‘Some HCs take avg of 4 years per case’ '''
+''Pendency Higher For Civil Cases, Finds Survey''
+Some high courts in the country take up to an average of four years to dispose of a case, a study has found. The high courts of Rajasthan, Allahabad, Karnataka and Calcutta are among the worst performers. The situation is worse in subordinate courts where it takes more than an average 9.5 years for disposal of cases.
+A study conducted by Bengaluru-based Daksh, which analysed 45.51 lakh pending cases in 24 HC, found that the performance of Allahabad HC has gone from bad to worse. A similar study by Daksh in 2016 had shown that Allahabad HC had the highest average pendency of about three years which went up to 4.32 years in 2017.
+Average pendency indicates the length of time for which cases remain in courts without being disposed of.
+Allahabad HC, the country’s largest, has the highest pendency of 9.25 lakh cases while Rajasthan HC has 2.50 lakh pending cases but has the same average disposal rate of 4.3 years. The Karnataka HC took an average 4.1 years to dispose of a case, Calcutta HC 3.7 and Orissa and Delhi HCs 3.4 years each, the survey for 2017 found.
+“In general, civil cases have higher average pendency than criminal and writ cases in most high courts,” the study said.
+The situation got worse in subordinate courts. Gujarat subordinate courts had the highest average pendency of 9.51years, followed by Odisha at 8 years, Jharkhand 6.89 years, J&K 6.88 years, UP 6.75, Maharashtra 6.36, Bihar 6.28, West Bengal 6, MP 5.86 and Chhattisgarh 5.8 years.
+The best performing subordinate courts were in Rajasthan where a case was disposed of in 3.67 years, followed by Assam, Punjab and Delhi at 3.86, Karnataka 4 and Andhra and Telangana at 4.24 each.
+The organisation also analysed different stages of a case’s progress in court. On an average, a case took 36% of the total time at the stage of evidence, followed by appearance where it took 31% time. The argument stage took almost 18% and framing of charges 7%.
+An analysis of the life cycle of a case — time taken from the evidence stage to the final judgment — showed that in 50% of cases, it took longer than 384 days between the evidence stage and the final order.
+For this purpose, Daksh studied cases in Delhi’s subordinate courts and found that in two cases, the time taken was up to 4,350 days or almost 12 years. Less than 50% of cases in Delhi’s subordinate courts was disposed of in less than two years, which is the benchmark set by the Malimath Committee.
+== Allahabad HC: 40 year pendency==
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F01%2F07&entity=Ar00304&sk=3C4FE1BB&mode=text  Dhananjay Mahapatra, Appeals in Allahabad HC pending for over 40 years, January 7, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+'''50% Of Posts Vacant, Avg Disposal Time 12 Yrs'''
-== The era of cineastes ==
+The Supreme Court’s consistent rulings that every accused in a criminal case has a fundamental right to a speedy trial has been rendered meaningless by the pendency of criminal appeals for more than 40 years in the Allahabad high court.
-[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Dravidian-drama-Film-to-politics-06122016016043  Madan Mohan, Dec 6, 2016: The Times of India]
-'''Dravidian drama: Film to politics'''
+Crimes committed in the late 1960s or early 1970s and some of the appeals in the high court in the late 1970s against decisions of trial courts convicting the accused are still pending. A recent report submitted to the Supreme Court by the HC revealed that as many as 14 criminal appeals filed in the seventies — 1976 (2), 1977 (4) and 1978 (8) — are still pending final decisions.
+In what can dent the faith of the common people in the efficacy of the justice delivery system, more than 13,600 criminal appeals are pending for more than 30 years in the HC, the biggest in the country with a sanctioned strength of 160 judges. In its report to the bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Friday, the HC said one of the main reasons for delay is the almost-50% vacancy in judges posts as the high court has only 84 judges, battling the odds stacked heavily against them.
-Few evoke such awe in the peninsula as film stars and cricketers. Capitalising on this appeal, some have ventured into politics, but history has shown that having made a mark in cinema or cricket does not guarantee a smooth passage to power.
+It was the petition of a murder accused that spurred the SC bench to diagnose and seek to remedy the deep-running malaise of pendency. His counsel, Dushyant Parashar, told the SC that the appeal was filed in 2007 and it is yet to be put up for final hearing even 10 years later. “If the situation so continues in the HC, the appeal may not come up for hearing in the next 10 years,” he said, pressing for a solution to the problem even after the SC turned down bail for his client. However, the SC sought to know from Unnao jail superintendent the conduct and behaviour of the convict.
-South of the Vindhyas, a handful of film personalities have made it to the top league in politics. In undivided Andhra Pradesh, N T Rama Rao dominated the landscape for years. Kannada star Rajkumar too wielded influence on the political culture of the state though he remained on the sidelines. However, the manner in which Tamil film personalities have held sway has no parallel. This was chiefly because the DMK used films to propagate its core ideology--uplifting of the downtrodden and upending the caste-ridden social hierarachy .
+The SC clarified that “the choice of the HC is only in view of the extent of pendency and the frequently expressed concern over the relatively longer disposal time in the adjudication of criminal appeals before it, which (is also) noticeable from contemporaneous records.”
-Party founder C N Annadurai and his successor Karunanidhi saw the power of the medium and used it effectively to connect with the crowds. M G Ramachandran who starred in some of the films that served as vehicles for DMK propaganda, was revered by millions, a following that he converted into a mass base in politics by launching AIADMK.
+''' ‘Vacancies slowing down justice delivery’ '''
-But others with a sizeable fan following who entered the arena, were not able to generate the same appeal. Sivaji Ganesan, who ruled Tamil cinema for decades, dab bled in politics but never made it big. It was no different for Karthik, a popular actor.Vijayakanth founded the DMDK and made inroads, but his political career has fizzled out. Rajnikanth, who has an appeal akin to MGR's, let wiser counsel prevail and gave public life a wide berth.
+We wish to state that the selection of the HC by no means is an indication of any deficiency in the functioning or the ongoing endeavours on its part in addressing the issue and ought to be viewed as a step, if possible, to reinforce the same in the espousal of a public cause founded on the cherished right of personal liberty,” it said.
-Jayalalithaa's achievement is thus all the more remarkable considering the odds the more remarkable considering the odds she overcame. Everything she represented stood against the mores of a largely conservative, patriarchal society rooted in Dravidian ideology . It was ironic that the upholders of the feminist ideals of E V R Periyar, founder of the Dravidian movement, had qualms about accepting a woman as their leader. Only after her mentor MGR ordered his cadre to accord her due respect did she rise and eventually take over the party on his death. But hypocrisy and sexism continued to dog her, as in the assembly on March 25, 1989, when Jayalalithaa was attacked and disrobed by DMK legislators.
+The Allahabad HC’s efforts to deal with monstrous pendency may have been laudable but the factual scenario as narrated by the HC in its report to the SC is disconcerting. The HC said “average disposal time of an appeal is about 11.39 years”. The chart on disposal of cases said thousands of criminal appeals took on an average of more than 20 years to be decided, indicating serious infraction of the right to a speedy trial.
-===Impact on politics===
+The HC said a large vacancy, coupled with heavy filing of fresh cases and lack of interest among lawyers for early disposal, had a crippling effect on efforts to dish out speedy justice. It says technology could be used in a big way to expedite the disposal of cases. “However, due to a lack of the sufficient number of skilled employees and lack of infrastructure, benefits of having e-courts (paperless courts) is not being utilised,” it said. The SC appointed senior advocate M N Rao as amicus curiae to assist the court in finding a practical solution to the vexed issue.
-[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/what-happens-when-a-state-is-run-by-movie-stars.html?_r=0  JULY 1, 2015, The New York Times],
+==2018: 10 lakh+ cases pending in 24 high courts for 10 years+==
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F03%2F26&entity=Ar01109&sk=221625A1&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, Over 10L cases pending in HCs for over 10 yrs, March 26, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
-Amma means ‘‘mother,’’ and in Tamil Nadu, it’s the nickname for an indestructible politician named Jayalalithaa Jayaram, a former actress who is now the general secretary of the state’s ruling party, the A.I.A.D.M.K. Until Sept. 27, when she was sentenced to four years in prison, she was also the state’s chief minister. The charge was ‘‘disproportionate assets’’: the court found that her wealth exceeded her known sources of income by 660 million rupees, or around $10 million. A raid on her house found 10,500 saris, 750 pairs of shoes and 66 pounds of gold. It is a pittance compared with the 10-billion-rupee hauls some North Indian public servants are said to have amassed. Nevertheless, she was the first chief minister in India to be ejected from office for corruption.
+[[File: Top 10 worst performing HCs- cases pending for over 10 years.jpg|Top 10 worst performing HCs- cases pending for over 10 years, 2007-17 <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F03%2F26&entity=Ar01109&sk=221625A1&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, Over 10L cases pending in HCs for over 10 yrs, March 26, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
-Across the state, her followers pelted buses with stones and set them on fire. At Perungalathur junction, on the highway to Chennai, people lay down in the road and tried to persuade bus drivers to turn the buses on them. ‘‘Run us over, run us over!’’ they yelled. ‘‘Why should we live when our Amma is in jail?’’ According to the A.I.A.D.M.K., hundreds of people committed suicide in response to her conviction, dozens by self-immolation.
-How to account for this histrionic devotion? You don’t find people begging bus drivers to kill them in Kerala, the state just next door. One explanation is movie mania. Before she went into politics, Jayalalithaa was the most popular Tamil movie actress of her time, the heroine in more than 100 films. She followed the model of her mentor and co-star, an actor-politician named Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran but more commonly known by his initials M.G.R. He ruled Tamil Nadu for 11 years, and since his death in 1987, Jayalalithaa and her archenemy, a wily 92-year-old screenwriter named Muthuvel Karunanidhi, have taken turns running the state. As the head of the D.M.K. — the party to which M.G.R. belonged until their rivalry forced a split — Karunanidhi has built a cult following on par with Jayalalithaa’s. The two of them rule as if in a melodrama, having each other arrested, dropping snide insults and wild accusations, destroying each other’s pet projects. The D.M.K. and the A.I.A.D.M.K. have almost no policy differences, but no other party can gain a foothold.
+Over 10 lakh cases are pending in 24 high courts across the country for more than 10 years, many of them pending disposal for 20 years and more, according to information released by the gover nment.
-Three days before Jayalalithaa’s appeal, A.I.A.D.M.K. loyalists were staging mass prayers in temples, mosques and churches. If she were to win, she would resume her seat as chief minister in time to contest the 2016 elections. If she were to lose, she would remain banished from politics for 10 years. In Madurai, party disciples broke 1,008 coconuts. In Coimbatore, 2,008 marched with urns of milk on their heads. At Chellapillai Rayar temple, 508 women lighted an equal number of oil lamps. The courtyard filled with the smell and haze of incense and the sound of hundreds of tiny brass bells. The politicians posed for photographs with a framed portrait of Jayalalithaa.
+For cases pending for a period between 5 and 10 years, such pendency constitutes almost 50% of the total 42.69 lakh cases yet to be disposed of in all the 24 HCs.
-Their prayers were fueled by a dual hope: that God would take mercy on Jayalalithaa and that Jayalalithaa would take note of their efforts on her behalf. The best way to get her attention was to put on a performance of their own.
+The Allahabad high court tops the list among the high courts with the largest pendency. With 2.67 lakh cases pending for 10 years and more, the country’s largest high court has almost 38% of its total pending cases falling in this category.
-You know you’ve entered Tamil Nadu when you begin to see Jayalalithaa’s face everywhere: a double-chinned Mona Lisa, her long, dark hair pulled back in a demure chignon. In the cities, her party members line the avenues with giant Jayalalithaa billboards to prove their fealty, and her likeness stares out from posters all over the villages, where her biggest vote bank resides. Her face appears on the outside of the free laptops she distributes to students and then again on the desktops. There are Amma pharmacies for subsidized drugs and Amma canteens for 5-rupee meals; soon there will be Amma cinemas for cheap movies. The ubiquity of that face gives the state the feel of a cartoon dictatorship, much to the annoyance of Tamils indifferent to her charms.
+The high courts of Bombay; Punjab and Haryana; Calcutta; Rajasthan; Madhya Pradesh; Telangana and Andhra Pradesh; Madras; Orissa and Patna, in that order, are the high courts which have highest pendency of cases older than 10 years.
-Chennai in particular is a city whose self-image is genteel, cultured and intellectual, and some there are prone to deep embarrassment over the excesses of Amma worship. It is also the capital of the Tamil film industry, the southern counterpart to Hindi-language Bollywood in the north. Its blockbusters are just as bombastic, and its fans are even more fervent: at every new release by the Tamil action star Rajinikanth, his admirers bathe posters of him in milk, a treatment typically reserved for idols in temples. But no actor has dominated Tamil culture like M.G.R., who is like a messianic hybrid of Elvis Presley and Ronald Reagan.
+The pendency of cases have also become part of the political debate with Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeting how the “legal system collapsing under pending cases” with a hashtag #JudiciaryDemonetised. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, said the judiciary should be kept out of the political discourse. He attributed the Congress chief ’s tweet “a result of nervousness after government's notice to Cambridge Analytica for data mining”.
-In the movies, M.G.R. was a swashbuckler: fencing with the dastardly, rescuing the innocent, dancing, romancing, laughing madly. Jayalalithaa, born in 1948, grew up in his thrall, but wary of the cinema. Her father died when she was 2, and her mother, Sandhya, was a struggling second-rung actress who rarely came home. At 16, Jayalalithaa was confident and voluptuous, a talented dancer with a knowing air. Sandhya’s colleagues found her alluring and offered her parts in movies. Though Jayalalithaa dreamed of becoming a lawyer, her mother pushed her to turn down a college scholarship and accept. One of her first films was ‘‘One in a Thousand,’’ a starring role opposite M.G.R.
+Interestingly, the cases pending for decades have experienced long and repeated adjournments, which are also in conflict with the provisions laid down in the law. According to amendments carried out in the Civil Procedure Code and the CrPC, no judge can give repeated adjournments in a case, not more than three, unless it is extremely unavoidable.
-When M.G.R. stepped into the studio, everyone was expected to stand in respect. But on the set of ‘‘One in a Thousand,’’ Jayalalithaa sat cross-legged and kept right on reading her book. M.G.R. was intrigued. Despite their three-decade age difference, she turned out to be his perfect on-screen foil: flirty one moment, haughty the next, worldly and earthy and vivacious. Rolling in the grass in a song sequence from the film ‘‘The Sacred Dwelling,’’ he pounces for a kiss, only to end up with a flower in his mouth; she bites the petals from his lips and flings them aside with her teeth. That they were lovers was an open secret, though M.G.R. was married to a former co-star named Janaki. Over the next eight years Jayalalithaa and M.G.R. starred together in 28 films.
+The large pendency of decade-old cases in HCs have little justification, particularly in view of the fact that these HCs together have been disposing of over 1.24 lakh cases every month, of which cases older than 10 years constitute just around 8,000.
-By the time they met, M.G.R. was strongly associated with the Dravidian Progress Federation, or D.M.K. The party grew out of a movement against the brutal social order of the era in which lower caste Tamils were denied public resources and often forbidden even to wear shoes or ride bicycles. Dravidian activists protested the dominance of Brahmins in Tamil Nadu and of Hindi-speaking northerners on the national level. Fatefully, the D.M.K. came of age just as the cinema craze took hold in India, and many of its ideologues were screenwriters, M.G.R.’s close friend Karunanidhi among them.
+===140 cases pending 60 years+; 51,000 for 37 years+===
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F12%2F31&entity=Ar00303&sk=0809E308&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, 140 cases pending in lower courts for more than 60 yrs, December 31, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
-The D.M.K. packaged its propaganda in the form of popular action entertainments, using catchy songs to instill Tamil pride, comedy to mock its enemies and extravagant oratory to attract a following, coding its ideas in allegory to evade the censors of the ruling Congress Party. The D.M.K. made M.G.R. a star: his madcap energy gave their films the wild charisma they needed to carry their message. The party cultivated an image of M.G.R. as ‘‘the savior of the poor,’’ the journalist Sampath Kumar told me. ‘‘And he became intoxicated with that image.’’
+[[File: Pendency in district and subordinate courts in India, 1950-2018.jpg|Pendency in district and subordinate courts in India, 1950-2018 <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F12%2F31&entity=Ar00303&sk=0809E308&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, 140 cases pending in lower courts for more than 60 yrs, December 31, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
-M.G.R. became the face of the party, and what a face it was: jowly in a way that was somehow dashing, with a smile that flitted dangerously between mischief and love. It was a stroke of luck, then, when M.R. Radha, a rival actor, unaccountably shot M.G.R. in the neck just before the 1967 elections, and widespread sympathy for his injury helped push the D.M.K. into power. Two years later, M.G.R. used his party clout to propel Karunanidhi to the chief minister’s chair, a prize for having given him his big break in films.
+[[File: Cases pending in district and subordinate courts, state-wise- as on December 25, 2018.jpg|Cases pending in district and subordinate courts, state-wise- as on December 25, 2018 <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F12%2F31&entity=Ar00303&sk=0809E308&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, 140 cases pending in lower courts for more than 60 yrs, December 31, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
-The two looked like co-celebrities in chief, superstar and screenwriter, with a shared uniform of sunglasses and wide smiles. But in power, their friendship soured. In 1972 M.G.R. founded the A.I.A.D.M.K. and took most of the movie magic with him. The rabble-rousing songs he had lip-synced in his films — ‘‘How long will they fool us/in this land of ours?’’ — became his party’s anthems. His fan clubs doubled as party chapters, in a ready-made organization that in 1977 was instrumental in winning him the chief minister’s seat. M.G.R.’s government has been hailed for the success of his Nutritious Meal program, which provides free lunches for school children. His rule was also characterized by police abuse, an intolerance of dissent and economic policies that nearly always favored the wealthy. But the movies, coupled with M.G.R.’s knack for publicizing his personal acts of generosity, convinced his rural devotees that they had an intimate bond with him. They re-elected him until the end of his life.
-By then, at M.G.R.’s invitation, Jayalalithaa had joined the A.I.A.D.M.K. She had shown little previous interest in politics, and her entry into a Dravidian party was made especially unlikely by the fact that she was a Brahmin. But she was a natural leader: glamorous and intelligent, with a command of English and Hindi that served her well as a legislator in Delhi. The men in M.G.R.’s inner circle saw her as a threat and tried to shut her out. After M.G.R. died on Dec. 24, 1987, she revealed the depths of her tenacity. While M.G.R.’s body lay in state, Jayalalithaa secured a position just behind his head, where the cameras couldn’t avoid her, making her seem more prominent even than his wife, Janaki. For two full days she kept her post, even as Janaki’s entourage pinched her and stomped on her feet. When his funeral procession departed, Jayalalithaa tried to climb onto the gun carriage bearing his body. On live television, Janaki’s nephew struck her and pushed her to the ground.
+''66K Cases Stuck For Over 30 Yrs''
-For four years she fought her enemies inside and outside the party; each insult only seemed to harden her resolve. In 1991 she began the first of three terms as chief minister.
+Rahul Pathak of Buxar filed a case on May 5, 1951, for final decree or judgment. According to records with the National Judicial Data Grid, the case is still at the argument stage in the Dumraon civil court, and the last hearing was on November 18, 2018. The court is yet to update the next date of hearing.
-One evening out on Chennai’s Marina Beach, I met a burly fisherman named Sathiavaan. He greeted me happily when he saw me examining his net and catamaran and spoke with pride of the danger and difficulty of his work. When I asked him, through an interpreter, about Jayalalithaa, he started to cry. ‘‘The only person who helps the fishermen is Amma,’’ he said. ‘‘We felt like orphans when she went to jail. She’s like the sea that gives us our livelihood.’’
+The story, though unusual, is not unique. Similar cases, running into thousands, are pending for more than 40-50 years or so in remote corners of the country. Official statistics show that there are about 140 cases pending in lower courts for more than 60 years, many since 1951. Cases pending for more than 30 years are as high as 66,000 in district and subordinate courts as on December 28, 2018.
-All along the beach waved tattered A.I.A.D.M.K. flags on wind-bent sticks. The tsunami of 2004 hit hard here during Jayalalithaa’s second term. In a nearby concrete slum, two fishermen’s wives praised her response. ‘‘Immediately she rushed here and investigated, talked to us, consoled us,’’ one said. On the steps of a small church hidden in a maze of shanties, I asked a woman named Kala about the corruption case that had knocked Jayalalithaa out of office. ‘‘What she did was wrong, but who has not committed mistakes?’’ Kala said. ‘‘We love her because she’s a woman. A lonely woman like us.’’
+And those pending for more than five years add up to 60 lakh.
-While M.G.R. built a film persona that he could import almost directly to politics, Jayalalithaa had to make a clean break. ‘‘To live down the image of an actress is very important, because an actress is by definition a public woman, a loose woman,’’ the social historian V. Geetha told me. ‘‘She had to desexualize herself.’’ In her first term, she started wearing body-sheathing capes over her saris and asked voters to call her ‘‘sister.’’ By her second term she had stopped wearing jewelry altogether. That’s when she began to be known as ‘‘Amma’’: a stern and distant yet endlessly generous mother, a screen for all her children to project their hopes onto.
+A recent assessment by the government noted that at the current rate of disposal, it will take 324 years for pending cases in subordinate courts to be disposed of. As per records, the pendency has increased to an all-time high of 2.9 crore cases, 71% of which are criminal cases where an accused may have been arrested and could be languishing in prison as an undertrial. Last month, subordinate courts disposed of 8 lakh cases against 10.2 lakh new ones instituted, generating a backlog of more than 2.2 lakh cases every month, on average, besides the current pendency.
-Much of her style of rule comes directly from the M.G.R. playbook: populist, authoritarian, tantalizingly inaccessible. In her first term, a bureaucrat who questioned one of her transactions was disfigured in an acid attack; Jayalalithaa has denied involvement. In recent years, she has silenced her critics with constant defamation cases. Her handpicked replacement after her conviction, a party loyalist named O. Panneerselvam, wept as he was sworn in as chief minister and refused to occupy her office or sit in her chair. He presented the state budget in a briefcase emblazoned with her face. Her party discipline is total. ‘‘It’s a man’s world here,’’ said A. Arulmozhi, the propaganda secretary for another Dravidian party. ‘‘Sometimes I feel that the reason women in Tamil Nadu enjoy Jayalalithaa in power is that they see how she controls men, keeps them at a distance, falling at her feet.’’
+A TOI analysis on year-wise pendency since 1951 shows there are about 1,800 cases still in hearing or argument stages for the last 48-58 years.
-You would think that given all this emotional mayhem, Tamil Nadu would be a mess, but in fact it’s one of the best-run states in India. Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen, in their book ‘‘An Uncertain Glory,’’ an analysis of economic development in India, single out Tamil Nadu as a paragon of administrative innovation among Indian states, ranking it best in the country for the quality of its public services. Under Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi’s governance, Chennai has gained a reputation as the Detroit of India (in the car-manufacturing-hub sense, not in the bankrupt-and-abandoned sense). Her raw instinct for political survival was enough to put her in office. Once there, she revealed a surprising talent for administration. ‘‘She schooled herself, and to that extent one has to salute her,’’ the journalist Sadanand Menon told me. ‘‘She has worked to understand procedures, rules and regulations, policies.’’
-But her continuing success among voters perhaps owes less to her management skills than to her genius at branding. In 2006, immediately before an election that seemed sure to go Jayalalithaa’s way, Karunanidhi promised free televisions for all. He won, and a freebie arms race commenced. Since Jayalalithaa resumed office in 2011, she has given away or heavily subsidized laptops, saris, fans, rice, cows, goats, food processors and bicycles, and branded all of it with her face and the name Amma: Amma salt, Amma cement, Amma drinking water. Some of the giveaways, like free neonatal kits for new mothers, are certainly worthwhile. But the practice has become so brazen that politicians discuss it with open cynicism. I suggested to Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter and a member of Parliament, that the parties are running out of things to give away. ‘‘Maybe fridges,’’ she said wryly. ‘‘But the only thing is we don’t have enough electricity. Maybe we should do cupboards.’’
+'''PENDENCY REPORT'''
-In attaching her Amma persona to every welfare program, Jayalalithaa now embodies the state in her role as the mother of all Tamils, and all good things appear to flow from her largess. Even as she stood convicted, few disputed that she was right then at the very pinnacle of her power.
+,000 cases pending for over 37 yrs
-One morning I met Shihan Hussaini, a karate teacher, archer, sculptor, painter and sometime actor, at his studio near Elliot’s Beach in Chennai. ‘‘Tamil Nadu revolves around sensation, revolves around drama, revolves around legends,’’ he said. ‘‘Tamil Nadu people, they lap it up.’’
+Around 13,000 cases have been pending for over 40 years and around 51,000 for up to 37 years.
-I first heard of Hussaini after he made a double-size but otherwise perfectly lifelike sculpture of Jayalalithaa’s head out of 11 liters of his own and his students’ coagulated blood. But he was quick to draw a line. ‘‘I’m not one of those fools that set themselves on fire,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m an educated guy. There are millions and millions of men, women and children who love her equally or in fact more than me. But I’m able to express it in the right way.’’
+Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, accounts for the highest 26,000 cases pending for over 30 years, or nearly 40% of all such cases, followed by Maharashtra where more than 13,000 cases are pending for such a period. About 96% of all such pendency are in six states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat and Odisha. Overall, these states together have more than 1.8 crore cases pending in their subordinate courts, which is over 61% of 2.93 crore pendency in all lower courts in India.
-The latest way he chose to express his love for Jayalalithaa was to have himself crucified. He invited the press to his studio to watch his karate students help him hammer six-inch nails though his hands and feet. Then he delivered a speech about the glories of Amma until he passed out. Jayalalithaa wrote him a letter, telling him that she was terribly disturbed and asking him to please never do anything like it again. ‘‘I was touched,’’ Hussaini whispered. ‘‘Touched! I’ve kept that letter very, very safe. I’m going to frame it and put it up somewhere.’’
+Many of these cases are on perpetual stay while others are simply being given a new date of hearing but never taken up for final disposal — reasons are not recorded. For instance, a case filed on July 2, 1953 by one Bhagwan against Dulari in Varanasi is on perpetual stay.
-A month after the crucifixion, he wore adhesive bandages on each side of his hands. I asked how long it had taken before he could use them again. ‘‘Surprisingly, very soon,’’ he said cheerily. Then his face darkened. ‘‘But my feet are giving me a lot of problems. The heels are — it’s very painful.’’
+The case history shows that it reached first hearing date on October 11, 2015, and the next date of hearing has been fixed on January 15, 2019.
+A case, ‘Uttar Pradesh state vs Ayoudhyas’, filed on March 18, 1966, reached appearance stage before civil judge Duddhi in Sonbhadra district in September 2016 and has since been given next date of hearing on February 13, 2019.
-In the A.I.A.D.M.K., political engagement is physical engagement. It begins with the bodies of the politicians themselves: their performances on-screen, whatever physical relationship they had with each other, their athletic struggles in the political arena. The people do the rest. ‘‘There’s something about blood bonds in Tamil Nadu politics,’’ the journalist Sadanand Menon told me. After M.R. Radha shot M.G.R., he said, fans lined up across the state to donate blood. And when M.G.R. came out of the hospital, he started addressing his audiences as ‘‘blood of my blood.’’ When he started his party, he called on his followers to prove their loyalty by being tattooed with his new flag, and thousands complied. When Jayalalithaa set up a tent on Marina Beach and fasted publicly for 80 hours in protest of interstate water policy, thousands joined her. At every letdown, it seemed, A.I.A.D.M.K. supporters tried to set themselves on fire.
+==2018-21: backlog of 30-year-old cases up  61%==
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2021%2F02%2F16&entity=Ar02408&sk=7378C9E4&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, February 16, 2021: ''The Times of India'']
-Several Jayalalithaa skeptics told me that they doubt her party members care for her at all. They just know that mad acts of political theater are how things get done in Tamil Nadu. ‘‘I don’t think it’s about people liking her or liking Karunanidhi,’’ the playwright Gnani Sankaran said. ‘‘The people have no options. Because Jayalalithaa’s the boss, they totally depend on her.’’ What looks like fervency is perhaps merely a practical result of being trapped in a state with only two viable parties that are indistinguishable except for the personalities of their commanders.
+[[File: 2018-21- the backlog of 30-year-old cases.jpg| 2018-21: the backlog of 30-year-old cases <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2021%2F02%2F16&entity=Ar02408&sk=7378C9E4&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, February 16, 2021: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
-This still doesn’t explain the self-immolations; surely there is no pragmatic angle on those. Yet Sankaran insisted to me that there was. ‘‘Party functionaries organize these things,’’ he said. ‘‘They’re not spontaneous.’’ A suicide, I said, seems like an extreme thing to organize. ‘‘They can organize extreme things,’’ he said. ‘‘Using money. Using emotion.’’ I first dismissed this as conspiracy theory. But as the months after Jayalalithaa’s conviction passed and the suicides continued, the party kept boasting of the tens of millions of rupees in compensation it gave to victims’ families, which surely only encourages more suicides. I often heard party men exaggerate the number of deaths; it’s something they’re clearly proud of. In statements issued from her home in the heart of Chennai, Jayalalithaa is careful to express her shock and dismay whenever her constituents self-destruct in her name.
+Vacancies of judges in courts have been a perennial problem of the Indian judiciary and so has been the huge pendency of cases. The Covid-19 pandemic has further accentuated this with the backlog of 30-yr-old cases alone rising by 61% over the last two years across the country — from 65,695 in December 2018 to 1,05,560 till January 2021.
-The day before the verdict was quiet, so I went to the movies. Jayalalithaa made a cameo during the intermission. In a government ad, an old man complained that it never rained anymore, and a woman told him not to worry. Amma has been planting trees all over Tamil Nadu, and soon the rains will return. It sounded like her boldest giveaway yet. The ad closed with an M.G.R. song: ‘‘Tomorrow Is Ours.’’
+The subordinate and district judiciary in the six states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat and Orissa accounted for 98% of more than a lakh of these over three decades old pending cases. The oldest of these cases dates back to 1951, according to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG). Almost 2,000 of them are pending for over 50 years.
-Early on verdict day, I stopped by A.I.A.D.M.K. headquarters. A small crowd of hopeful fans had gathered, and a newscaster was clustering them together to use as a backdrop. One man in particular caught my eye: He wore a big black cowboy hat and a shiny white robe with the party symbol on it. It was only when I approached him that I saw he was missing three fingers on his left hand. His name was R. Rathanam, and he was the superintendent of police for a city called Salem, until the day in 2004 he chopped off his fingers with a machete and dropped them in the collection box at a local temple. ‘‘For Amma to win,’’ he said. I asked him how she responded to the gesture. ‘‘She suspended me from the force!’’ he said. Then he raved about how she covered the bill for his medical treatment.
+Overall, the total pending cases in the subordinate judiciary increased from 2.92 crore in December 2018 to 3.72 crore at the end of January 2021, a majority of them added during the pandemic year. Most of these are criminal cases (73%), almost similar to the number of undertrial population in our prisons across the country.
-Nearby, outside Jayalalithaa’s house, thousands were waiting for the verdict to be announced at 11 a.m. Everyone was performing for the news channels, shouting slogans: ‘‘Long live Amma!’’ ‘‘Revolutionary leader Amma!’’ ‘‘The savior of the people!’’ Often it seemed as if a shoving match was going to break out, as the fans elbowed one another to get in front of the cameras. But as the hour approached, the mood shifted. You couldn’t even call it anticipation: We had moved beyond that now. No news had come, and yet the whole street was swept in a wave of emotion, smiling, trading jokes, laughing.
+The Niti Aayog, in its 2018 strategy paper “New India @75”, had noted that at the current rate of disposal of cases in our courts, it will take more than 324 years to clear the backlog. Then the pendency was 2.9 crore cases.
-And when the verdict came, right on time, no one stood up to make an announcement. The good news passed from mouth to ear, and a chain reaction of wild dancing passed through the mob until it became one leaping mass of joy. Amma won, Amma won, Amma was acquitted of all charges.
+[[Category:India|J
+JUDICIAL DELAYS/ PENDENCY: INDIA]]
+[[Category:Law,Constitution,Judiciary|J
+JUDICIAL DELAYS/ PENDENCY: INDIA]]
+[[Category:Pages with broken file links|JUDICIAL DELAYS/ PENDENCY: INDIA]]
-No one knew the judge’s rationale, but it hardly mattered. For hours, the crowd kept dancing and shouting and setting off firecrackers, their energies fueled by rumors that she would emerge from her house to greet them. She never did. Apparently the day was not auspicious for appearing in public. But the celebration raged on for as long as the cameras were rolling. After a while, it even started to rain.
+=Acquittal rate=
+==High rate in Delhi, 2011-15==
+[[File: Cases decided by the SC, Delhi HC and trial courts, 2011-15.jpg| Cases decided by the SC, Delhi HC and trial courts, 2011-15; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=HC-Poor-probe-led-to-high-acquittal-rate-05052016007025 ''The Times of India''], May 05 2016|frame|500px]]
-==Era ends in 2016 (does it?)==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=HC-Poor-probe-led-to-high-acquittal-rate-05052016007025 ''The Times of India''], May 05 2016
-[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Curtains-for-film-era-in-Tamil-Nadu-politics-07122016018006  Kalyanaraman M, Curtains for film era in Tamil Nadu politics, Dec 7, 2016: The Times of India]
+'''HC: Poor probe led to high acquittal rate'''
-Much as Jayalalithaa preferred to describe the AIADMK as the evolutionary culmination of the Dravidian movement, she relied on her movie star status only sparingly . Unlike the other Dravidian movement leaders like Anna, Karunanidhi and MGR who were involved in films, Jayalalithaa was not schooled in its ideology . Her rise in the Dravidian movement was more by association with MGR who saw her charisma and talent for organising; he put it to effective use. Nevertheless, in stature, she was second to none from the previous generation of leaders. “With Jayalalithaa's death, the era of such tall leaders backed by movie charisma may indeed be over in the state. Now we will concentrate on issues, not just glamour and hero worship,“ says film critic and historian Theodore Baskaran.
+More than 80% of criminal cases decided by the Delhi high court in the past five years ended in acquittal while the figure hovered around 60% for sessions courts in the capital.
-Baskaran points out that MGR and Jayalalithaa made it big in politics not because of their popularity . “Dravidian movement leaders like Annadurai and Karunanidhi had their own standing as political leaders. They did not gain an identity through films,“ he said. Baskaran traces the Dravid ian movement's relationship with performing arts. The activists staged plays that served as a vehicle for their reformist ideas and the plays were popular too. “One of the plays was `Parasakthi' which resonated with Tamil audiences. In 1952, a film producer made it into a film scripted by Karunanidhi, solely based on its business proposition,“ says Baskaran.
+Appalled by the high acquittal rate, a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva on Wednesday blasted Delhi Police for its “shoddy probe“, pointing out that “innocents may have been sent for trial and guilty gone unpunished“ because of this trend.
-While producers sought to make a profit out of a set of popular ideas, the movement's leaders leveraged the mass appeal of films. Movie stars started appearing in `Dravidian' films and this further boosted the movement. But the crossover ended early .Baskaran points out that Sivaji Ganesan, who was as big a star as MGR, failed in politics. “His fan following, though huge, was heterogeneous politically unlike that of MGR,“ he says.
+The court's stinging comments came on a status report filed by the police disclosing data of total cases decided by the Supreme Court, the Delhi HC and sessions courts in the past five years.Referring to the “revealing statistics“, the HC bench said, “For this reason, we have been pressing upon the need to bifurcate law and order duties so that investigation wing improves. We also stressed the need for proper scientific methodology , increase in manpower but these concerns take a back seat for governments of the day .“
-==Rajini-Kamal star war reminds of MGR-Sivaji rivalry==
+The police report showed that of 725 cases in HC, 588 ended in acquittal while the accused were convicted in 138 cases. With regard to crimes against women, acquittals in sessions court were over 71% as against 84% in the Delhi HC.
-[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/rajini-kamal-star-war-a-look-back-at-mgr-sivaji-rivalry/articleshow/62346238.cms  M T Saju, January 3, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+Saying it is “deeply disap pointed“, the bench slammed the police. “People are getting raped, molested, harassed, murdered and acquittal rate is 80 to 90%. Then court is blamed for acquittals that we allowed culprit to go scot-free. But the reason is shoddy investigation by police. It means they have apprehended a criminal but because of poor quality of investigation and evidence, court acquits the criminal...because of shoddy investigation, innocent people get arrested,“ the court noted.
-'''HIGHLIGHTS'''
+According to the report filed in a suo motu case related to policing and security following the Nirbhaya case, the police revealed that of 14,270 session courts cases, 8,667 ended in acquittal while 5,603 ended in conviction in the past five year.
-The entry of Rajini-Kamal into politics reminds us of MGR-Sivaji tussle of four decades ago.
+“Two of the most material things for any human being are life and liberty , which should never take a back seat“ the bench reminded the counsel appearing for the Delhi government, police and the Centre.
-Some observers feel that 'Rajinikanth is MGR and Kamal Haasan is Sivaji'.
+The high court asked the Delhi government to file a detailed status report on the backlog of samples, which are yet to be tested in forensic science laboratories and also the number of samples tested in past three years. Zeroing in on the lack of sufficient FSLs as one of the main reasons for delay in trial and mounting arrears, the court said report would have to indicate the number of samples tested in the past three years and the capacity of each lab individually and together. The court will take up the matter on May 18.
+As of now, there are only two functional forensic labs in Delhi--at Chanakyapuri and Rohini--and the backlog of samples is over 8,000. A report from these labs is received only after three-four years, the court was informed.
-Four decades ago, the political landscape of Tamil Nadu witnessed intense competition between actors: MGR and Sivaji Ganesan. Both had a huge fan base, but Sivaji lost out in the political race.
+The Centre in its affidavit said that Delhi Police had forwarded majority of its proposals for manpower directly to MHA. It said a high-level committee had been set up to take a holistic view regarding manpower requirement.
-A similar competition is hotting up between two other superstars. A couple of months ago, Kamal Haasan decided to chart a political course+ , and a couple of days ago his arch-rival Rajinikanth followed suit+ .
+=Courtrooms, shortage of =
+==2018: Shortage of 4,000 courtrooms==
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F11%2F05&entity=Ar02405&sk=BF77F103&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, Shortage of 4k courtrooms even if all judge posts filled up, November 5, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
-The stage is set once again for the clash of two film titans intent on grabbing political space. While his charity work also helped MGR build up a loyal following, Sivaji failed to do so. His followers saw him as a great matinee idol, but were reluctant to support his political image. The entry of Rajini-Kamal into politics is working on a similar plot. Some observers feel that 'Rajini is MGR and Kamal is Sivaji.'
+[[File: Status report on district & subordinate Judiciary, as in 2018.jpg|Status report on district & subordinate Judiciary, as in 2018 <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F11%2F05&entity=Ar02405&sk=BF77F103&mode=text  Pradeep Thakur, Shortage of 4k courtrooms even if all judge posts filled up, November 5, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
-"Rajini has a huge fan following across Tamil Nadu. He is accessible to public and even considered a simple, straightforward person. Kamal is brilliant and honest but it will be a tough game for him in politics," said R Kannan, Dravidian scholar and author of "MGR: A Life" and "Anna: The Life and Times of C N Annadurai".
+There are just 18,400 court halls available across the country for district and subordinate judiciary at present, a shortfall of more than 4,000 courtrooms if all the vacant posts of judges in the lower judiciary are filled up.
-MGR showed great concern for public welfare and successfully used his movies to lay the foundation for his entry to politics.
+The Centre has set a target of completing construction of 2,730 court halls within this financial year with the Supreme Court making it clear that all the 5,700 plus judicial vacancies in district and subordinate courts are to be filled up immediately. Currently, the working strength of judicial officers is 16,728 against a sanctioned strength of 22,474 judges.
-"From the beginning, unlike Sivaji Ganesan, he (MGR) cultivated and promoted artists, directors, poets, producers and technicians who suited his professional and political ends. He patronised them and their careers became inextricably linked to his. In 1971, a generous MGR gave poet Pulamaipithan money to buy back his ancestral house that had been mortgaged," said Kannan.
+The initiative to fill up all vacancies in lower courts has received fresh impetus after CJI Ranjan Gogoi expressed his displeasure with the manner in which states and high courts have dealt with the recruitment process leading to huge backlog. Hearing a related writ petition on Thursday, the CJI even warned HCs and states of SC intervention to ensure that all these judicial vacancies are filled up in a fixed timeline.
-Despite being a great actor, Sivaji Ganesan couldn't transfer his cinematic image to politics. But, the MGR-Sivaji Ganesan fight was long ago, on a socially and culturally different backdrop. Today's political landscape is different. "MGR was a success both in cinema and in politics. Actor-turned politician Vijayakanth succeeded a little bit in politics, but lost out later. Rajini has a great fan-following in the state. But, he is a very shy person. His success depends on how he is going to showcase his public life now," said Kannan.
+Lower courts currently have pendency of 2.72 crore cases, and judges’ vacancies are seen as one of the reasons. If all these posts are to be filled up, the country would require at least 4,071 additional court halls. At present there are only 18,403 courtrooms available for lower court judges . Even if the government manages to construct the targeted 2,730 court halls, the shortage will remain for 1,341. The SC had recently asked HCs to give a status report on judicial infrastructure required for filling up of all vacancies. The existing infrastructure is just sufficient for 16,728 judges, the present working strength of lower courts. But if all the vacancies are to be filled up within a year, the states and the Centre will have to ensure that more courtrooms are either constructed or hired for the newly recruited judges to function.
-At a time when even seasoned politicians like DMK working president M K Stalin have still not been given a clean chit by the public, it remains to be seen how actors like Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth are going to win over the hearts of voters. "What Rajini needs is to build up interaction with the public. As an actor, he has done his job. But being a good politician is not easy and Rajini is new to it. But I believe he will put up a better show compared to Kamal Haasan in politics," said K Murugesan, a retired professor of politics.
+A source in the law ministry said the government has sanctioned adequate funds to ensure that the construction of 2,730 courtrooms are taken up on mission mode and completed within the deadline.
-=Congress in Tamil Nadu =
+The government has shown willingness to conduct a nationwide examination, as a one-time measure for appointment of judicial officers for subordinate and district judiciary, involving a central agency with due importance given to local languages for those opting for particular state as their choice, something on pattern of NEET held by CBSE for medical students. An all-India merit list of aspiring judges will be prepared based on the proposed central selection mechanism. The decision to hold these examinations would be taken only after a directive is issued from the SC which is hearing a writ petition on the possibility of constituting an all-India judicial appointments mechanism, which was objected by several states and HCs in the past.
-==2016: No Congress MP left==
-[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=For-1st-time-Cong-has-no-LS-or-27052016008022 ''The Times of India''], May 27 2016
-'''For 1st time, Cong has no LS or RS member from TN'''
+=Alternate Dispute Resolution=
+==2015> 2017: ADR a success==
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F03%2F31&entity=Ar01407&sk=5A699B27&mode=text  Dispute resolution centres a hit, ease pressure on courts, March 31, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
-“Tamil Nadu has become Congress-mukt in both Houses of Parliament,“ quipped a political commentator here on Thursday after the party failed to get a Rajya Sabha nomination with its senior partner DMK nominating two of its seniors to the upper House, scuppering the chances of former finance minister P Chidambaram.
-The DMK-Congress alliance can win only two seats based on its strength in the assembly . With just eight seats, Congress is in no position to hope for an RS ticket.
+Mediation is picking up as a popular mode of dispute resolution, particularly at the district level, where people are preferring to resolve disputes at the Alternate Dispute Resolution centres rather than courts.
-While Congress drew a blank in the 2014 general elec tions in TN with AIADMK making a sweep of 37 seats and NDA winning the remaining two, the grand old party will now have no Rajya Sabha MP from the state either -for the first time in history.Former Union ministers Sudarsana Natchiappan and Mani Shankar Aiyar (nominated) retired recently .
+The number of cases referred by the courts to ADR centres in districts have shown a sharp increase in the past few years in some states. Centres in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan and UP have 35,000 to 75,000 cases listed for mediation at the ADR centres.
-Among the southern states, Tamil Nadu and the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh had the largest Rajya Sabha members -18. technical presence in the Rajya Sabha then with three MPs: G K Moopanar, who had quit to form his Tamil Maanila Congress, Jayanthi Natarajan and Peter Alphonse, who also joined the TMC but continued to be counted as INC members.
+In a statement before Parliament last week, minister of state for law P P Chaudhary said from 2.07 lakh cases received at district centres in 36 states and Union Territories in 2015-16, it has gone up to 2.91 lakh cases in 2016-17. And in the nine months between April-December 2017-18, it has already crossed 2.59 lakh.
-Incidentally, though Post-bifurcation of Andhra, TN has emerged as the southern state with the largest representation in the Upper House. Yet, Congress has found itself in an unprecedented situation.
+According to Chaudhary, while 53,000 cases were settled in 2015-16, the next year more than 93,700 cases were settled. During April-December 2017, already 77,500 cases have been settled through mediations at the ADR centres.
-There was no Congress MP from TN in the Lok Sabha in the 1996-98 period after the party in alliance with AIADMK lost all 28 seats it contested. AIADMK contested in 11 Lok Sabha seats without success.
+“Legal Services authorities are engaged in promoting the use of ADR mechanisms,” the minister said of centres set up in states that deal with matters referred to them by courts.
-Congress, however, had a Congress contested 10 LS seats in Tamil Nadu in 1999, Aiyar (Mayiladuthurai) and Natchiappan (Sivaganga) were the only two elected.This had put Congress back on the parliamentary map of Tamil Nadu then.
+Courts are also encouraging mediation at pre-litigation stage in marital disputes besides civil and criminal matters.
-However, TNCC general secretary D Selvam said not having representation from Tamil Nadu was no big deal.“Congress is a national party, and it will continue to have a voice in Parliament through MPs from other states conversant with TN issues,“ he said. “ DMK has no MPs in LS now and AIADMK had none in 1996,“ he added.
+The government is promoting ADR mechanism through mediations to bring down the pressure on the regular courts which are having huge pendency of cases. The subordinate courts in the country have more than 2.69 crore cases pending.
-=December in TN political history=
+=Pendency, strategies to tackle=
-[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Jayalalithaa-dies-December-a-fateful-month-for-Tamil-Nadu/articleshow/55827315.cms  Dec 6, 2016: The Times of India]
+==Courts must follow case timelines==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Courts-must-follow-case-timelines-or-take-the-29032017021003  Courts must follow case timelines or take the rap, March 29, 2017: The Times of India]
-'''HIGHLIGHTS'''
-December seems to be jinxed for Tamil Nadu as it witnessed yet another major loss.
+Former chief justice of Delhi high court, '''A P Shah''', shares his take on tackling judicial inefficiency
-Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5.
+'''ON JUDICIAL DELAYS'''
-AIADMK founder and charismatic actor-turned politician MGR died on December 24, 1987.
+Judicial delay is often attributed solely to court vacancies. But paucity of judges is not the only reason for pendency . There is an absence of evaluation of courts' performance and specific reasons for delay have not yet been studied.
-MGR died on December 24, 1987; his protege Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5.MGR died on December 24, 1987; his protege Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5.
+Vidhi's report on the Delhi high court is a first step forward.Inefficiencies in the system must be examined: the court and other actors are not functioning at optimum efficiency , and the extent to which this contributes to delay must be tracked from the trial court stage itself.
-December  seems to be jinxed for Tamil Nadu as it witnessed yet another major loss with AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa+ joining a list of iconic leaders whose end came in the last month of the year.
+'''ON HOW TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY'''
-While AIADMK founder and charismatic actor-turned politician MGR died on December 24, 1987, his protege Jayalalithaa breathed her last yesterday (December 5), in a tragic coincidence of their end coming in the same month.
+What's troubling is that case timelines are never followed. The culture of adjournment and non-compliance is so deeply rooted that no thought is given to case management. Both the Bar and the bench are equally responsible; advocates use multiple adjournments as a strategic tool, and courts do not adhere to procedural timeframes.
-Both leaders had also gone through prolonged period of illness before their end came.
-C Rajagopalachari, the last Governor General of India, passed away on December 25, 1972 while rationalist leader "Periyar" E V Ramasamy died on December 24, 1972, both aged 94.
+Although exemplary costs are sometimes levied on dilatory tactics, it's mostly ad-hoc and not a matter of institutional policy or practice. It is also common for lawyers to engage in unnecessarily long arguments and for judges to write overly long judgments. Since case management is completely absent, hundreds of matters are listed on one day , and insufficient time is left in court to hear cases. Courts need to implement case timelines and there must be serious consequences for not following them.
-=The DMKs/ Dravidian parties=
+'''ON HOW COURTS CAN AID RESEARCH ON DELAY'''
-==Why the DMK AIADMK rule TN==
-[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/the-reason-why-dmk-aiadmk-rule-tn-politics/articleshow/79405022.cms  S Prabakaran, November 27, 2020: ''The Times of India'']
+Professional managers are needed in courts to improve data management. Judges are still given these administrative tasks.As a result, data collection is non-uniform, defective and, at times, misleading. What Delhi high court has done is laudable but not sufficient. The judiciary needs better data management but has been reluctant to engage external experts, even for managerial tasks. There is a misconception that technology will solve all of judiciary's problems. That is the role of judicial policy-making; technology is a small part of the solution.
-The ruling AIADMK or the DMK have been in power since 1967. They see eye-to-eye only in such matters as reservation, Cauvery river water sharing and Sri Lankan Tamils issue. In tune with this trend, the one-upmanship over 7.5% quota politics saw neat conception of the idea and its equally neat implementation. That the entire fee of the students will be borne by the DMK or the government, or both, has further sweetened the deal.
+==Retired High Court judges, use of services==
+[http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/retired-judges-to-wield-the-gavel-again/article9310431.ece ''The Hindu''], November 6, 2016
-That neither parties liked NEET and that they have been promising to scrap it at the earliest political possibility is known. Basis for their common hatred is that not many rural students or those who studied in government schools were able to crack NEET or score enough marks to get into government-run medical colleges. No legislative attempt, including the DMK’s rural reservation scheme, could escape judicial scrutiny in the past.
+KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL
-To blunt the unrelenting criticism by the opposition party, the Edappadi K Palaniswami government formed a judicial committee headed by retired Madras high court judge Justice Kalaiyarasan. His report acknowledged the steep social divide, and recommended 10% quota for government schools in MBBS/BDS courses. For certain reasons, the government scaled it down to 7.5% and tabled it in the assembly. Though forwarded to governor Banwarilal Purohit immediately the latter chose to sit on it saying he needed legal opinion of the attorney general of India.
+'''Retired judges to wield the gavel again'''
-Tamil Nadu has 3.44 lakh students in more than 3,050 state-run schools. However, of the more than 4,000 government quota medical seats, only 14 of them went to government schools students in the past three years put together. That is, of the 41% of Class XII students in the state, only 14 could go to government medical colleges. But even this damning data did not move the Raj Bhavan till the attorney general gave his green signal saying there is nothing unconstitutional about the policy decision, so long as it remains within the permissible reservation ceiling.
+It took the government six months to agree to a resolution passed by the judiciary to re-employ them to cut pendency.
-Sensing a political space in the delay, the DMK organised protests and made it a huge political issue, thereby pinning its stamp on the social welfare initiative of the AIADMK government. To foil the DMK’s bid to steal the thunder, and upset by the unresponsive governor despite three ministerial delegations meeting him, the AIADMK government took the executive route and issued a government order on October 29. The “surgical strike’’ of sorts had the desired effect — the very next day the governor gave assent to the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Courses in Medicine, Dentistry, Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy on Preferential Basis to the Students of the Government Schools Bill, 2020.
+The Union government has agreed to a resolution passed by the judiciary in the Chief Justices and Chief Ministers Annual Conference in 2016 to use the services of retired High Court judges with proven integrity and track record to tackle pendency of cases.
-The last, but most interesting part of the 7.5% quota politics unfolded after the governor’s assent on October 30. Of the 313 government schools students selected for the MBBS course, 225 were accommodated in government medical colleges, and another 15 given admission in government dental colleges. Another 85 students were taken in by private medical colleges. While the annual tuition fee is less than ₹20,000 in government colleges, in private institutions it is ₹3.5 lakh-₹4.5 lakh a year.
+The resolution, forwarded by the Delay and Arrears Committees of the judiciary, had been hanging fire since April 2016.
-As reports on the inability of underprivileged students to pursue their medical dream surfaced, the DMK announced last week that it would bear the expenses of all government school students joining private colleges. Not to be left behind, the government itself made a similar announcement later in the day, but pointed out that it had already announced a similar decision on November 18, and that it had also written to colleges not to deny admission to students admitted under 7.5% quota.
+The provision to use the services of retired judges is open to the Chief Justices of High Courts under Article 224A of the Constitution with the previous consent of the President as an extraordinary measure to tide over case pile-ups.
-Politics is bound to be played. But what should not be missed is the fact that the competitive welfarism or competitive populism between these two Dravidian parties has ultimately benefited a critical section of society, and triggered a huge interest among the next batches of students in government schools.
+As per the minutes of the April resolution, “keeping in view the large pendency of civil and criminal cases, especially criminal appeals, where convicts are in jail and having due regard to the recommendation made by the 17th Law Commission of India in 2003, the Chief Justices will actively have regard to the provision of Article 224A of the Constitution as a source for enhancing the strength of judges to deal with the backlog of cases for a period of two years or the age of sixty five years, whichever is later until a five plus zero pendency is achieved.”
-Reports show that other states have no such debate about the poor presence of government school students in government medical colleges. Consequently, most states do not keep track of the number of government school students in their medical colleges.
+''' ‘Five plus zero’ initiative '''
-In Tamil Nadu, when the DMK and the AIADMK were slugging it out for credit in getting medical seats for more than 300 students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, the other politial parties remained mute spectators.
+‘Five plus zero’ is an initiative by which cases pending over five years are taken up on priority basis and their numbers are brought down to zero.
-[[Category:India|T
+The conference minutes considered the report of the committees about delay in case disposal in the High Courts with great concern. “The reports submitted by the Delay and Arrears Committees of various High Courts have indicated a need to prioritise areas of immediate concern in the disposal of pending cases.”
-TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY]]
-[[Category:Places|T
-TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY]]
-[[Category:Politics|T
-TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY]]
-=Election-time ‘incentives’=
+These concerns highlighted in the conference includes: The pendency of cases in the High Court has been stagnant for over three years; 43 per cent of the pendency is of cases of over five years; concentration of ‘five years plus’ cases in a few High Courts; and stagnant pendency figures of five years plus cases (33.5 per cent in 2015) in district courts.
-==2019==
-[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rs-1-crore-foreign-trip-vote-linked-bonus-for-tamil-nadu-party-cadre/articleshow/68651546.cms  Shanmughasundarm, Rs 1 crore, foreign trip: Vote-linked bonus for Tamil Nadu party cadre, March 30, 2019: ''The Times of India'']
-[[File: Incentives during elections in Tamil Nadu.jpg| <br/> From: [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rs-1-crore-foreign-trip-vote-linked-bonus-for-tamil-nadu-party-cadre/articleshow/68651546.cms  Shanmughasundarm, Rs 1 crore, foreign trip: Vote-linked bonus for Tamil Nadu party cadre, March 30, 2019: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
+Accordingly, it was resolved that all High Courts shall assign top-most priority for disposal of cases which are pending for more than five years.
+In High Courts, where arrears of cases pending for more than five years are concentrated shall facilitate their disposal in a “mission mode.”
-Tamil Nadu has a rich tradition of election-time freebies - from television sets to blenders to sarees - but this time, leaders are extending the largesse to the humble party worker to begin with. Party cadres who ensure winning votes for candidates stand to win anything from gold chains and rings to refrigerators, motorbikes and even paid foreign trips.
+The High Courts shall progressively thereafter set a target of disposing of cases pending for more than four years. The Conference had resolved that while prioritising the disposal of cases pending in the district courts for more than five years, additional incentives for the judges of the district judiciary be considered.
-Such is the buzz that I-T sleuths swooped down on one such candidate, Kathir Anand, who is debuting in Vellore, and unearthed Rs 10 lakh on Saturday. Kathir is the son of DMK treasurer S Duraimurugan.
+'''MoP on appointments'''
-The trend was kicked off by former Union minister and DMK candidate for Arakkonam, Jagathrakshakan. He promised Rs 1 crore to the in-charge of the assembly segment (there are six in an Lok Sabha constituency) where he polls the highest number of votes. Jagathrakshakan, who runs a string of educational institutions, owns a star hotel and is one of the four billionaire candidates from Tamil Nadu.
+The agreement on the minutes comes at a time when the Executive and the Judiciary are trying to find a common ground on the memorandum of procedure for judicial appointments in High Courts and ths Supreme Court.
-Duraimurugan said Jagathrakshakan's "incentives" were like awarding a student for scoring top marks and securing the first rank. "The cash price will serve as motivation and encourage healthy competition among party workers. It will serve the purpose and bring victory to the party candidate," he said. The DMK treasurer himself has promised a "cash prize" of Rs 50 lakh to the party worker of the assembly segment which polls the highest number of votes for his son in Vellore.
+As on June 30, 2016 while the total sanctioned strength was 21,303, the subordinate courts were functioning with 16,192 judicial officers — a shortage of 5,111.
-There is a rider, though. The money can be used only for development activities such as construction of party office in the assembly segment. "There was a overwhelming response from party workers to the announcement," Duraimurugan said.
+The 24 High Courts face a shortage of nearly 450 judges. Nearly three crore cases are pending in courts across India.
-There was another kind of response too. On a call from the Vellore district election officer, a team of income tax officials landed up at Kathir's residence in Katpadi on Saturday. They also searched a school and college owned by the family and the farmhouse of a close confidant. Cash amounting to Rs 19 lakh was found in the house. "Since Kathir had declared Rs 9 lakh cash on hand in his affidavit, we seized the excess cash," an official said.
+=Region-wise=
+==The six worst hit states==
+''The data in this section seems to be for 2006-16 ''
+[[File: Judicial pendency six states with the highest backlog.jpg| Judicial pendency (roughly 2006-16): the six states with the highest backlog |frame|500px]]
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=90-of-23-lakh-cases-pending-for-over-21092016015009  90% of 23 lakh cases pending for over 10 years are in 6 states Sep 21 2016 : The Times of India]
-Kathir's political rivals are promising cadres election dividends too. New Justice Party founder and AIADMK candidate for Vellore AC Shanmugam is dangling a bullet (motorbike) and fully-funded foreign and domestic tour packages to enterprising party workers.
+Six states account for around 90% of the 23 lakh cases pending around the country that are older than 10 years, though not all of them are the largest states in terms of overall pendency .
-Shanmugam, who contested unsuccessfully on a BJP ticket from the same constituency in 2014, has a long list of gifts for top-performing cadres from each assembly segment - Bullet motorbikes worth more than Rs 1 lakh, and all-paid foreign and "north India" tours.
+UP accounts for 30% of all 10-year-old cases pending countrywide, followed by Gujarat with 22%, Maharashtra (11%), Bihar (10%), Odisha (8%) and West Bengal (8%).Out of 2.29 crore cases pending in subordinate courts across the country , 22.95 lakh are older than 10 years. In addition, 40 lakh cases have been pending between five and 10 years. According to the National Judicial Data Grid, UP has close to 7 lakh cases which have been pending for 10 years or more. Gujarat has 5.13 lakh such cases, Maharashtra 2.57 lakh, Bihar 2.37 lakh, Odisha 1.82 lakh and West Bengal 1.72 lakh.
-"It is a win-win situation for the cadres who work hard and for the candidate who actually tastes victory," said an AIADMK functionary who hurriedly began his campaign in Sathuvachari in Vellore. His target: to ensure Shanmugam gets at least 5,000 votes and he gets a paid holiday.
+Many of these cases remain unresolved in subordinate courts for decades and are reflective of the slow moving justice delivery system.Around 71% of all cases pending for over 10 years are criminal cases where a court is bound to dispose of the matter in a fixed time.
-=Religion=
+However, of late, the judicial system in some states have shown the willingness to take up older cases on priority. For instance, Gujarat, which has the second highest pendency of old cases, disposed of 9,000 last month -over 6,400 criminal and 2,500 civil cases. UP has performed well too, with 6,600 cases older than 10 years disposed off last month alone, half of these were criminal cases. There are also huge va cancies in lower courts across the country . At least 4,432 judges' posts were vacant as of December 2015. Out of a sanctioned strength of 20,502 judges for subordinate courts, the strength stood at 16,050 last year.
-==Returns to TN politics==
-[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/elections-2016/tamil-nadu-elections-2016/news/Tamil-Nadu-election-How-religion-is-scripting-a-TN-return/articleshow/51535639.cms ''The Times of India''], Mar 24, 2016
-Kalyanaraman Mauryas
+==Trial courts: Delhi, delays reduced==
+''' Case backlog shrinks in trial courts '''
-''' Tamil Nadu election: How religion is scripting a TN return '''
+% Reduction Since 2011-End, But No Change In Number Of Criminal Cases
-Despite more than seven decades of the Dravidian movement, religious belief seems strong as ever in the state.
+Smriti Singh TNN
-In the `About' page of her personal website, Thamizhachi Thangapandian introduces herself as someone who upholds Periyar's ideas but has also imbibed Osho's thoughts.
+[http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP/2013/08/13&PageLabel=2&EntityId=Ar00201&ViewMode=HTML The Times of India] 2013/08/13
-Thamizhachi, a writer and the secretary of the DMK's art, literature and rationalism wing, is among those who are seeking to give a contemporary feel to the party's rationalist and atheistic moorings.Overturning decades of Dravidian movement's hostility to a thousand years of bhakti literature, Thamizhachi acknowledges the Tamil version of Ramayana as part of the state's traditions.
-Thamizhachi is cut from a softer cloth. For most Periyar followers in the past, however, virulently denying God and ridiculing believers were par for the course.
-Periyar, the founder of the Dravidian movement who in his youth had several run-ins with brahmins and their notions of caste purity, saw religion and scriptures as the source of caste inequality . He railed against all beliefs and called them superstitions."Periyar comes in a long line of contrarian voices in Tamil and Indian society . He was like the siddhars and charvakas who would forcefully attack belief, ritual and brahmins," says M D Muthukumaraswamy , a folklorist and scholar of Saiva scholar of Saiva philosophy .
-Yet, despite more than seven decades of the Dravidian movement and 49 years of rule of Dravidian parties, religious belief seems strong as ever in the state. Lakhs of people throng not just the big temples but also smaller folk shrines closely linked to local culture. "Periyar the modernist saw everything around him as regressive. A cultural nihilist, he didn't understand the importance of the rela tionship between beliefs and the cultural life of Tamils," says Muthukumaraswamy .
-Critics are not so charitable to Periyar. "His atheism and show of putting a gar land of chappals over idols of deities were clownish, not well thought out.Scriptures merely codified caste whose material basis was already there in society. The Dravidian move ment attacked scriptures but never really challenged the deeper basis of caste," says N Kalyan Raman, a literary critic, who adds that while the movement empowered OBCs against brahmins it kept alive the antagonism between OBCs and dalits. Kalyan Ra man cites the recent case of a dalit boy being hacked to death in Tirupur last week for marrying a thevar (OBC) girl, in an apparent case of honour killing.
-But Periyar's followers find in such incidents the dying gasps of a moribund caste system. "Inter-caste marriages among upper castes and backward classes have become common because of the progressive nature of the Dravidian movement. It's only a matter of time before dalits are also integrated into Tamil society ," says G Olivannan, vice president of Tamil Nadu Rationalists' Society that is part of Dravidar Kazhagam.
-Many say that right from the beginning those among Periyar's followers who sought a political future were keen on reformist policies but stopped short of preaching atheism. Annadurai, an atheist who founded the DMK in 1949, jettisoned atheism in favour of the concept of "One Mankind, One God".
-"Such accommodations are inevitable in politics when we want to appeal to a broad section," says Thamizhachi.She finds nothing wrong in Stalin's recent temple visits."We have to acknowledge all voices in society in a spirit of post-modernism even when we critique them," she says.
+New Delhi: Trial courts in the capital have managed to reduce pending cases by 30% in the last one-and-a-half years. A recent report released by the Delhi district courts on the pendency of cases states that around ''' five lakh cases are pending ''' before the lower judiciary this year as against more than seven lakh at the end of 2011. This figure includes all the criminal cases and civil disputes before the magisterial courts and the district and sessions courts.
-Thamizhachi considers atheism or irreligiousness as a feature of a social movement that fights caste inequality and subjugation of women, and cites legislation by the DMK, such as giving women rights to inherit property and appointing non-brahmins as priests in temples.
-Others, however, see in the movement's twists and turns a lack of principles. "Karunanidhi's wife and Stalin's wife are devoutly religious. Jaya is openly religious. Her followers offer prayers at temples for their leader, some even go as far as to ritually partake food from the floor of a temple so the deity showers blessings on Jayalalithaa," says T N Gopalan, a political analyst.
-=Students=
+There has also been a significant reduction of 50% in the pending cases of ''' dishonoured cheques, '''  major component of the backlog. From 2.2 lakh cheque bounce cases pending in 2011, the courts now have 1.06 lakh. Legal experts say the drop in pending cases is a result of measures adopted by the judiciary, such as the setting up of special courts and the ''' ‘five-plus-zero’ ''' initiative.
-==1965 onwards: How students shaped Tamil Nadu politics==
-[http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/?p=82508 N Nandhivarman, Feb 6, 2017: The Times of India]
+Last year, the Delhi high court had asked judges to “identify” cases which have been pending for more than five years and take them up on priority. They were also asked to dispose of such cases within six months.
-'''Remains to be seen if jallikattu agitation will bring in a new leadership'''
+The circular issued by the HC had also asked the courts to bring down the pendency of ‘cheque bounce’ cases under the ''' Negotiable Instruments Act '''  by 50% before December 2012. To achieve the target, the senior judges were asked to “ensure” that the metropolitan magistrates dealing with such cases are provided with “adequate staff and support from police stations in executing summons and warrants”.
+While the targets in the cheque dishonour and traffic challan cases seem to have been achieved, there is no decline in the number of criminal cases pending before the sessions courts. In all, 18,564 sessions-triable cases, which have a punishment of seven years and above, are pending. This figure includes 1,043 rape cases, 47 cases of gang rape and 212 cases pending under the new Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
-“From January 26th of 1965, Hindi will become the official language of the Union. Although provision had been made in the Official Language Act 1963 for the continued use of English in addition to Hindi, it is expected that Hindi will be used for all official purposes of the Union after January 26 of 1965.“ The news published in a circular issued by the Lal Bahadur Sastri-led Union government in 1964 had enough fuel to trigger the famous anti-Hindi agitation of 1965, an event which not only united Tamils against one cause but also changed the dynamics of politics in Tamil Nadu by bringing Dravidian parties to the forefront.
+Even as six fast-track courts have been set up to try cases of sexual offences against women, sources said it is difficult to bring down the pendency in such cases to zero due to the increasing crime rate. “Pendency in criminal cases usually stays constant as new cases are filed every day, and despite regular disposal the new cases add on to the existing numbers,” said a judge on the condition of anonymity.
-The pattern of the recent protests against the jallikattu ban may have looked like a reprise of the anti-Hindi protests, with both uprisings being spearheaded by students. But, the strings that pulled both were different and so were the repercussions.
+Also, adding to this year’s backlog are more than 1 lakh cases pending before magisterial courts. These include petty offences in which the maximum punishment is up to three years.
-Unlike the jallikattu protest wherein students declined involvement of any political party in the agitation, it was the DMK which laid the foundation for the anti-Hindi protests in 1965. The DMK executive council under general secretary Navalar Era Nedunchezhian on January 8, 1965 declared that the party would celebrate that year’s Republic Day as ‘Mourning Day’ in protest against the Union government’s decision of having chosen the day for the imposition of Hindi in the south.
+Sources say many measures have been adopted by the courts to tackle the mounting number of cases. Besides the five-plus-zero initiative and the increased number of judges in the lower judiciary, the courts are also required to send their disposal rate in every quarter of the year. Mega lok Adalats are also being held on a regular basis to deal with compoundable offences—those in which a settlement can be achieved.
-Within six hours of this decision, student leaders met at Pachaiyappa’s College to take the movement forward.This was followed by massive protests by students across the state. Students were afraid that they will not be eligible for Central government jobs if Hindi became the sole official language. The Tamil Nadu Students Anti-Hindi Agitation Council coordinated the anti-Hindi protests. Picketing and protests were seen on the campus of Presidency College, Annamalai University (Chidambaram), The American College (Madurai) and Raja Serfoji College (Thanjavur) among others. An indefinite suspension of the Part XVII of the constitution was demanded at the Tamil Nadu Anti-Hindi Conference, held in Trichy on January 17.
+==2015: Pendency 45 lakh in 24 HCs==
+[[File: Trials that took over five years as % of total completed trials in 2015.jpg| Trials that took over five years as % of total completed trials in 2015; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Gallery.aspx?id=03_09_2016_010_021_001&type=P&artUrl=STATOISTICS-SPEEDIEST-JUSTICE-IN-KERALA-SLOWEST-IN-UP-03092016010021&eid=31808 ''The Times of India''], September 3, 2016|frame|500px]]
-As a preventive step, Annadurai was arrested and taken into police custody on January 25. The following day saw more than 50,000 students carrying out a rally from Napier Park to the secretariat to petition the chief minister.
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], Oct 15 2015
+[[File: Justice VN Khare.jpg| |frame|500px]]
+[[File: Amit Desai.jpg| |frame|500px]]
+The wheels of justice, the saying goes, grind slowly but grind exceedingly fine. In the Indian context, it would be more true to say that they grind so exceedingly slowly that there can be nothing fine about the outcome. When we set out to look at instances of gross miscarriage of justice, we found several cases where people were convicted of heinous crimes and locked up for years before being found innocent on appeal.
+Given the state of our high courts, this is hardly surprising. Consider the cold statistics first. As of end of June 2014, there were nearly 45 lakh cases pending in the country's 24 high courts. That's an average of nearly 2 lakh cases per high court. This is mindboggling in itself, but pales in comparison to the situation in Allahabad HC, where approximately 7 lakh cases are pending.
-DMK cadres like Keezhapavoor Chinnasamy and Aranganathan immolated themselves. M Karunanidhi was sent to solitary imprisonment in Palayam Kottai.
+The extent of pending cases is only to be expected when you look a little deeper into the same official data. It also tells you that as of end of June 2014, there were 265 vacancies for judges in the HCs against a sanctioned strength of 906, a shortfall of almost 30%. In the case of Allahabad HC, 70 of 160 positions were vacant or, about 44% of the judges required for the voluminous work have not been appointed.
-Interestingly , while the fear of loss of job opportunities was the only reason that united students against the imposition of Hindi in TN, the cause that united students on Marina wasn’t jallikattu alone. Jallikattu served as a symbol for students to pour out their pent-up ire against the establishment on a range of issues including the Cauvery water, demonetization and drought in TN.
-While the anti-Hindi agitations started on a peaceful note, police firing saw the usually peace-loving Tamils retaliating through violent acts. The uprising led to the fall of the Congress regime in 1967 and pushed DMK to the forefront. The jallikattu protest on the contrary was a highly peaceful agitation which gave students a platform to ex press themselves. That they desired no medium to put forth their demands became evident when they turned down any support from political parties or celebrities. It, however, took an ugly turn, when lumpen elements marred it with violent acts.
+Of the cases pending, about 10.3 lakh in all the HCs and 3.5 lakh in Allahabad alone were criminal cases. Assume for argument's sake that just one in a hundred of these cases will end up in the acquittal of the person or persons convicted by the lower courts -the actual acquittal rate will, of course, be much higher, but even if 1% of those convicted is innocent -then over 10,000 people in the country are wrongly locked currently . They are in jail despite being innocent of the crime they are said to have committed. For a system supposedly based on the principle that it is better for ten guilty people to go scot-free than for one innocent to be wrongly convicted, that is a shocking statistic.
-Looking back, I think, in the aftermath of the anti-Hindi protests, the government patted itself on the back just by putting neon lights proclaiming ‘long live Tamil’ in government buildings rather than making Tamil a medium of instruction in schools and colleges. Such hollow assurances sans solid steps continue till date.The real development of Tamil culture is on the back-burner.
+It isn't as if a person who has been wrongly convicted can count on a quick reprieve on appeal. In Allahabad HC, for instance, it takes, on average, 30 years for appeals against conviction in a lower court to be decided. The Rajasthan HC also has criminal cases pending since 1985. In Bombay HC, you could wait anywhere between two and 20 years, but the average time it takes for an appeal to be heard is four to seven years if a convict is in jail and the sentence is over 10 years; and 10-15 years if the convict is on bail pending the appeal hearing.
-The anti-Hindi agitation gave birth to many young leaders like K Kalimuthu, P Seenivasan, L Ganesan, A Ravichandran, Durai Murugan, Sedapatti Muthaiah, M Natarajan (Sasikala’s husband) etc. While many of them went on to become ministers and MPs, some faded into oblivion. Fired by a larger cause, a few made their mark in other fields. Will we see any of the jallikattu protesters reaching great heights? The answer to that would depend on the impact the agitation had on Tamil people’s ideas.
+The exact period of waiting may vary from HC to HC, but in most cases it runs into several years. And if the crime involved is murder, the wrongfully convicted person will be serving time while he or she waits. And for a very long time.By the time they are acquitted, most have wasted their best years in conviction. If this isn't travesty of justice, what is?
+Here are some real cases. One Ayodhya was convicted by the Gonda district judge for dacoity and murder in 1982 and appealed promptly . He was finally acquitted in September this year after having been in jail for two years and 30 more years under the shadow of a wrongful conviction though out on bail. Getting employment or social acceptance in this period must have been next to impossible. Kanem Anjamma of East Godavari in Andhra was convicted in January 2010 along with her husband for murdering their neighbour G Nageswara Rao neighbour G Nageswara Rao in 2007. Locked up for over five years, Anjamma finally was acquitted by HC in June this year. Kavita Sharma and her alleged paramour, Krishna Kumar Sain, were arrested in 2004 for murdering Kavita's husband and convicted by the trial court in 2006. In July this year, the Rajasthan HC acquitted them. They had spent 11 years in jail.
-=The subsidy culture=
+The loss of their freedom apart, each of these people had to carry the stigma of being criminals and murderers and in most cases by the time the grinding wheels of justice spat out their final verdict, there really wasn't much of a life to return to. That these are not isolated cases, but are illustrative of a deep malaise, is evident from the statistics on pendency of cases. The adage about justice delayed being justice denied has never been truer or more powerfully brought home.
-== Free rice has made people of TN lazy: Madras HC==
-[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/free-rice-has-made-people-of-the-city-lazy-says-hc/articleshow/66757925.cms  Free rice has made people of Tamil Nadu lazy, says Madras high court, November 23, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+(With bureau inputs from states)
-The Madras high court has said distribution of free rice and other such government schemes had made the people of Tamil Nadu lazy and as a result workers had to be brought in from northern states.
+''' The Times of India’s View '''
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], Oct 15 2015
-Making it clear that the court is not against distribution of rice free of cost to economically backward people, a division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice Abdul Quddhose asserted that such schemes should not be provided to all irrespective of economic status. The court was hearing a habeas corpus plea moved by an accused in a rice smuggling case challenging his detention under the Goondas Act.
+The provision of justice is among the most basic of services the state is expected to render to its citizens. The data here makes it abundantly clear that the Indian state has failed miserably in discharging this duty. At a time when all reasoned opinion says India needs more judges at every level than it currently has, how can the state escape the responsibility for vacancies of the order of about 20% in the Supreme Court, 30% in the high courts and nearly 22% in the lower courts?
-“It is brought to the notice of this court that for 2017-18, 2,110crore has been spent for distribution of free rice. 2,110crore is a huge amount, which should be spent judiciously including for infrastructure building. Government spends more than 2,000 crore and the money spent under this head would be like capital loss and the expenditure occurs every year and it is recurring capital loss, though it serves the people,” the bench said.
+Almost every week, there's a report in this paper of someone being found innocent by the courts -but only after he she has spent years and years in jail. This Sunday, we carried a report of the Bombay HC declaring a person not guilty of murder -14 years after he had been thrown behind bars, eight of them while his appeal was pending. In many such long-pending cases, the defendants are abjectly poor and cannot afford bail, forget a decent lawyer. Some of them don't even come to trial for years though theirs are relatively minor infractions of the law such as pickpocketing; it's not uncommon for undertrials to spend more time in jail than the maximum term they would have got if convicted. It's almost as if these people are forgotten once they're thrown behind bars.
-If the scheme benefits people other than poor, it would amount to unjustly enriching other people, at the cost of the public exchequer. Free rice should be given to families below the poverty line alone, the bench added and directed the government to file a report whether any survey had been conducted to identify BPL families. If so, how many families were below the poverty line in Tamil Nadu? If rice was distributed only to those people, what would be the volume required and the budget needed?
+Since it is the state's negligence that is largely responsible for such delays, it is only fair it compensates those found to have been wrongfully confined if their appeal has taken more than a stipulated time to decide or the appeals court holds that the earlier conviction was a case of very poor judicial judgement. It cannot undo the years of freedom they've lost, or the damage to their reputation, but it can bring some support to those who've lost years of their working lives in jail. At the very least, it should pay Rs 50 lakh for every year lost, to someone who had no income. For those with modest incomes the amount should be Rs 1 crore per year, Rs 3 crore per year for those with middling incomes and Rs 7 crore-Rs 10 crore per year for those in higher income brackets. These sums may appear high, but remember they include both compensation for irreparable harm and an element of deterrence for wrongful confinement or tardy administration of justice.
-To this, advocate general Vijay Narayan sought time to get instructions on whether the scheme could be amended so that those above the poverty line could be excluded.
+There should be fast-tracking of appeals, at least in cases like the Aarushi murder. Someone might legitimately ask why the Talwars should receive `preferential treatment'. It is possible that in many other cases waiting to be heard, the collection of evidence and police investigation was shockingly slipshod -as in the Aarushi case -and due process of law not followed. So why should the Talwars not have to wait like everybody else? It's because they've been convicted of murdering their daughter in a case where the unanswered questions are too glaring and too many to ignore. There can be no fate worse than that of parents who may have been wrongfully convicted of their child's murder.First, the grief of losing a child in gruesome circumstances, and then being viewed as murderers by the world. An expeditious hearing is all they seek -and it should be granted.
-Recording the submission, the bench said the state had to provide bare necessities such as rice and other groceries to the needy. However, successive governments had extended the benefits to all for political benefits.
+In the end, the entire system needs to be fixed, and soon.How many years more will we let countless thousands rot in jail -away from home and family -for crimes they haven't committed? More than these people, it is the state and the criminal justice system on trial here.
+==2016: States with best and best disposal and causes==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Judges-vacancies-not-sole-reason-for-pending-cases-20062016001057 ''The Times of India''], Jun 20 2016
+[[File: State-wise judges per million population and pending cases.jpg|State-wise judges per million population and pending cases; Graphic courtesy: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Judges-vacancies-not-sole-reason-for-pending-cases-20062016001057 ''The Times of India''], June 20, 2016|frame|500px]]
-“Consequently, people have become lazy and we have to import workers from northern states even for menial works,” the bench said and posted the plea to November 30 for further hearing.
+Pradeep Thakur
-Download The Times of India News App for Latest City News.
-=YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS=
+Shortage of judges may not be the predominant factor behind the large pendency of cases in courts across the country as much as their efficiency, says a study commissioned by the law ministry after the Chief Justice of India recently attributed over three crore pending cases to a huge gap in the judge-population ratio. The CJI had sought 70,000 more judges to clear the backlog.
-=2017=
+The study , which compiled data between 2005 and 2015, lists several states with higher judge-population ratio -such as Delhi (47 judges per million population) and Gujarat (32 judges) -which are still struggling to dispose of cases.
-==Sasikala unanimously elected legislature party leader before getting imprisoned==
-[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Jayas-close-aide-who-has-never-fought-an-06022017001060  Julie Mariappan, Jaya's close aide, who has never fought an election, grabs TN reins, Feb 6, 2017: The Times of India]
+Conversely , states such as Tamil Nadu (14 judges per million population) and Punjab (24 judges) have among the lowest pendency rates, according to the study. The findings also show a huge variation in the av erage number of cases disposed by a judge in a year in different states. In Kerala and Tripura, for instance, the rate of disposal per judge is as high as over 3,000 and 2,800 cases respectively per year while in states such as Jharkhand and Bihar, it is merely 255 and 274 cases respectively as per the working strength. India has an average 17 judges per million population on the current sanctioned strength, though there are over 44% vacancies in 24 high courts and 23% in subordinate judiciary . The current sanctioned strength of the subordinate judiciary is 20,214 judges while that of the 24 high courts is 1,056. The pendency of cases has remained abnormally high at 3.10 crore, as per the last estimates.
+“There is no direct relation between judge-popula tion ratio and the pending cases,“ said the study , pointing out how states such as Tamil Nadu and Punjab which ranked lower in terms of judge-population ratio also ranked lower in terms of the number of pending cases.
-AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala was unanimously elected legislature party leader by MLAs at a party meeting, paving the way for her to become the third woman chief minister of Tamil Nadu. The swearing-in ceremony is likely to take place.
+The highest pendency of cases per million population are in the states of Delhi, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Tripura, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Bihar--all having judge-population ratio above the national average of 17. The top five states have a judge-population ratio in the range of 20 to 47 judges per million population, but still have one of the highest pendency of cases per million population.
-Chief minister O Panneerselvam proposed her name and was seconded by AIADMK MLAs at the party headquarters. “I resign. We elect Chinnamma (Sasikala) unanimously the legislature party leader,“ Panneerselvam said, setting off applause in the hall.The allies who won on the two leaves symbol, MJK, Kongu Ilaignar Peravai and Mukkaluthur Pulipadai, also endorsed her candidature, though the MLAs were not present.
+Quoting from a previous Law Commission report, the law ministry study said the judge-population ratio was a poor substitute for sound scientific analysis to arrive at the real reasons behind huge pendency.
-In all, 134 MLAs signed the resolution, backing Sasikala to take over the reins of government. Hours later, Panneerselvam tendered his resignation to governor C Vidyasagar Rao. “Accept my resignation and relieve the council of ministers appointed by me on December 6,“ he said in the letter. He thanked PM Modi and the governor for extending support and cooperation during his tenure as CM.
+==Allahabad HC has highest pendency==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Vacancies-in-judiciary-police-force-plague-UP-27032017011045  Pradeep Thakur, Vacancies in judiciary, police force plague UP, March 27, 2017: The Times of India]
-Earlier, Panneerselvam and other ministers met Sasikala at the Poes Garden residence of the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, where Sasikala continues to live. The ostensible purpose of the meeting was to discuss the government's activities, issues pertaining to various constituencies and the manner in which Jayalalithaa's birth anniversary on February 24 is to be celebrated.
+[[File: Pending cases in High Courts as on Spetember 30, 2016.jpg|Pending cases in High Courts as on Spetember 30, 2016; [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Vacancies-in-judiciary-police-force-plague-UP-27032017011045  Pradeep Thakur, Vacancies in judiciary, police force plague UP, March 27, 2017: The Times of India]|frame|500px]]
-Minutes later, the MLAs met at the party headquarters and elected her. Sasikala, who dropped in, was greeted with the chorus of “Chinnamma Vazhga“ (Long live Chinnamma). The close confidante of Jayalalithaa made her way to the first floor and greeted the MLAs. Flanked by Panneerselvam, Edappadi K Palaniswami and party presidium chairman E Madhusoodanan, Sasikala took centre stage and said: “I accept your decision that one person alone should be the general secretary of the party and chief minister of Tamil Nadu.“ She went on to add, “I would realise the dreams of Amma. This government will work for the people in the way shown by Amma.“ In her four-minute speech, Sasikala expressed her gratitude to the MLAs and party workers for “shattering the dreams of rivals who wanted to see the party split“.
+New Delhi: The Aditya Nath Yogi government has resolved to improve the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh but two important pillars of the justice delivery system -the police and the judiciary -are in a dilapidated condition in the state.
+There is over 47% vacancy of judges in Allahabad high court and more than 55% vacancy in the sanctioned strength of the police force in the state.
-She praised Panneerselvam who, she said, stood loyal whenever the party faced tough times and when there were difficulties in Jayalalithaa continuing as CM. She said it was he who first persuaded her to take over the reins of the party and government. She will be the third woman CM of the state after Jayalalithaa and MGR's wife Janaki who assumed office for 24 days in 1988. I was not keen on accepting it then,“ Sasikala said, detailing that she took over as general secretary following requests from party workers.Sasikala said she had an obligation to fulfil the request of party workers and realise the dream of Jayalalithaa that the party should continue to work for welfare of people for a thousand years. The meeting was called a day after Sasikala appointed nine former ministers and 14 senior members who were earlier sidelined by Jayalalithaa. In what could be seen a precursor to the developments, Sasikala also booted out Jayalalithaa's loyalists from CM office-adviser Balakrishnan, Venkatramanan and A Ramalingam.
+Allahabad HC, the country's largest with a sanctioned strength of 160 judges, continues to reel under severe manpower crunch. Former chief justice of the HC Justice D Y Chandrachud, before he was elevated to the Supreme Court in May last year, had recommended candidates to fill up almost 90% of these vacancies, but to no avail.
-=2018=
+The recommendation got entangled in the standoff between the higher judiciary and the government over the process of appointment of judges. A year later, a majority of the recommendations for Allahabad HC are still pending approval of the government. Allahabad HC, short of 75 judges, has the highest vacancy among all HCs in the country .
-== HC split on 18 MLAs disqualification case==
-[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F06%2F15&entity=Ar01320&sk=E087D00B&mode=text  Sureshkumar K, Relief for TN govt, HC split on 18 MLAs, June 15, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+Consequently , the HC has the highest number of pending cases as well, a significant number of which have been pending for more than five years and some for longer than 10 years. According to the last estimate, the total pending cases in Allahabad HC was 9.25 lakh, which is over 23% of 40 lakh cases pending in all 24 HCs in the country .
-Political uncertainty in Tamil Nadu is bound to continue for some more time as the first bench of the Madras high court on Thursday delivered a split verdict in the ‘18 MLAs disqualification case’.
+Now, with the BJP assuming power in the state and also being at the helm at the Centre, it is expected that these vacancies will be filled up fast.
-While Chief Justice Indira Banerjee upheld the Tamil Nadu assembly speaker’s September 18, 2017 order stripping 18 rebel AIADMK legislators of their posts, saying scope of judicial review was limited, her companion judge on the bench Justice M Sundar quashed the speaker’s decision, saying the MLAs’ act of alleged defection was not ‘clear, categoric and unambiguous.”
+A risk assessment carried out on Uttar Pradesh's rising crime graph by the CAG last year had found that UP was at the top among states having highest number of violent crimes, accounting for almost 13% of all such incidents. It also had the maximum cases of crime against women. “Shortage of about 55% of the police manpower, if not immediately addressed, may further worsen the crime scenario in the state,“ the CAG had warned.
-They were disqualified on September 18, 2017 under anti-defection rules for having submitted a memorandum to the governor withdrawing their support to CM Edappadi K Palaniswami. On September 20, the court asked the election commission not to treat them as vacancies and hold bypolls. The first bench reserved its order on January
-. On Thursday, in a development that would prolong the suspense and uncertainty over the status of these MLAs, and consequently the stability of the government itself, the judges failed to reach a consensus over the issue. They then referred the matter to the next seniormost judge of the court so as to be posted before a third judge for hearing. The bench also made it clear that the bar on holding byelections to the 18 vacancies would continue.
+==Pendency of cases in District courts, region-wise, January 2017==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=23-crore-cases-pending-in-dist-courts-10-03012017008004  Swati Deshpande, 2.3 crore cases pending in dist courts, 10% for over a decade, Jan 3, 2017: The Times of India]
-In her order, Chief Justice Banerjee said that though orders of the speaker under the Tenth Schedule were amenable to judicial review, the scope of such judicial review is limited to violation of constitutional mandate, mala fides, non-compliance with rules of natural justice and perversity.
-==Two deaths alter TN’s political landscape in two years==
+The new year began with a crushing backlog in district courts, with over 2.3 crore cases pending across India as on January 2. Of these, approximately 1.5 crore are criminal cases, and 72 lakh, civil.
-[[File: 2016-18- Two deaths alter TN’s political landscape in two years.jpg| 2016-18- Two deaths alter TN’s political landscape in two years <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F08%2F09&entity=Ar01712&sk=0EC03BC4&mode=image  August 9, 2018: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
-''' See graphic ''' :
+The data, compiled by the National Judicial Data Grid, comprises statistics of the district judiciary of the country , but excludes figures from family courts and courts where connectivity is not available.
-'' 2016-18- Two deaths alter TN’s political landscape in two years ''
+With 55 lakh cases, 41 lakh criminal and over 13 lakh civil, Uttar Pradesh has the highest pendency . Cases not disposed of for over a decade constitute over 13% (over 7 lakh) of the state's total, with nearly 20 lakh cases, 36%, pending for less than two years.
-==18 rebel AIADMK MLAs disqualified by HC==
+Maharashtra ranks second, with 31 lakh cases pending in the state's district courts on January 2, including 20 lakh criminal and over 11 lakh civil cases. Of the state's total, 8% or over 2.5 lakh have been pending for over 10 years, and 45% or 14.6 lakh for less than two years.
-[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F10%2F26&entity=Ar02308&sk=E544056E&mode=text  Sureshkumar K, Relief for AIADMK as 18 rebel MLAs disqualified by HC, October 26, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
+The data also shows that nationally , cases pending for over 10 years comprise 10% of the total at 23 lakh, while those pending between two and five years constitute 30%.
-The Edappadi K Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu survived yet another crisis when the Madras high court upheld the disqualification of 18 rebel AIADMK legislators owing allegiance to rebel leader T T V Dhinakaran.
+The majority of the cases -over one crore, around 43% -have been pending for less than two years. Nationwide, the number of pending cases filed by senior citizens form 3.5% of the total. Nearly 23 lakh of the pending cases were filed by women.
-In a 475-page verdict on Thursday, Justice M Sathyanarayanan, who was selected by the Supreme Court as the tie-breaking judge after the split verdict on June 14, answered all four key legal points against the disqualified MLAs and confirmed the September 18, 2017, order of Tamil Nadu assembly speaker P Dhanapal stripping them of their elected posts.
+Madhya Pradesh and Delhi have recorded a low pendency at approximately 4.6 lakh and 5 lakh, respectively . Only 1% of Delhi's total -comprising 3.4 lakh criminal and 1.6 lakh civil cases -have been pending for over a decade.
-The 18 legislators had attracted disqualification after they submitted a memorandum to the governor on August 22, 2017, expressing no confidence in the leadership of CM Palaniswami, withdrawing their support to him and heaping corruption allegations against him.
+Tamil Nadu's district courts have 9 lakh pending cases, but it departs from the nationwide trend in that it has more civil than criminal cases.
-The ruling AIADMK can now survive a trust vote, as Palaniswami is assured of the support of 109 AIADMK legislators, two more than the half-way mark in the assembly as per the new strength of 214. While the CM welcomed the verdict , the DMK called for byelection in all the 18 constituencies, plus two more vacancies caused by the death of former CM M Karunanidhi and AIADMK legislator A K Bose . Meanwhile, the Madras high court on Thursday lifted the stay on conducting bypolls in Tamil Nadu.
+=Success stories=
+==2017: 4 states, 1 UT clear 10- year backlog==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Cases-pending-over-10-yrs-almost-nil-in-11092017001020  Pradeep Thakur, Cases pending over 10 yrs almost nil in 4 states, 1 UT, Sep 12, 2017: The Times of India]
-The Palaniswami govt survived yet another crisis as the Madras HC upheld the disqualification of 18 rebel legislators
+[[File: Total pending cases in district and subordinate courts, best performing states, as on Sep 4, 2017.jpg|Total pending cases in district and subordinate courts, best performing states, as on Sep 4, 2017; [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Cases-pending-over-10-yrs-almost-nil-in-11092017001020  Pradeep Thakur, Cases pending over 10 yrs almost nil in 4 states, 1 UT, Sep 12, 2017: The Times of India]|frame|500px]]
-=2019=
+[[File: Struggles in reducing 10-year old pending cases, as on September 4, 2017.jpg|Struggles in reducing 10-year old pending cases, as on September 4, 2017; [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com//Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Cases-pending-over-10-yrs-almost-nil-in-11092017001020  Pradeep Thakur, Cases pending over 10 yrs almost nil in 4 states, 1 UT, Sep 12, 2017: The Times of India]|frame|500px]]
-== Slow shift from Dravidian identity==
-[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F04%2F04&entity=Ar01900&sk=CF14F70C&mode=text  Jayaraj Sivan, In TN, politics makes a slow shift from Dravidian identity, April 4, 2019: ''The Times of India'']
+''In Delhi, Figure Brought Down To 1% Of All Cases''
-''DMK, ADMK Change Tone On Language''
+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.
-In 1962, the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) manifesto opposed compulsory learning of Hindi and demanded a constitutional amendment to make English an official language. This time, the party, and its rival AIADMK, have sought to make Tamil one of the official languages in all central government offices.
+Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Chandigarh lead in improving their justice delivery system, with courts managing to dispose of almost all cases that were pending for a decade or more.
-The compulsions of being in power for more than five decades have changed the way the Dravidian majors approach their poll manifestos. The demands of a separate Dravidian land and shunning Hindi have given way to the language of development in their recent manifestos.
+Five other states -Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra and Karnataka -are not too far behind and ha ve successfully brought down pendency of 10-yearold cases to almost 1% of their total pending cases. This data, however, does not include cases pend ing in the Supreme Court or high courts.
-The anti-Hindi rhetoric has died down in keeping with the sizeable Hindispeaking population in Chennai and other parts of the state in recent years. The DMK has, in the past, even brought out election publicity material in Hindi.
+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).
-Dilution of their political planks had been in the making for long, says veteran journalist TN Gopalan. “DMK gave up its demand for a separate Dravidian land even before it entered electoral politics in 1957. During the Sino-Indian war of 1962, party chief CN Annadurai made it official that the party was dropping the secessionist demand. By then, DMK was the principal opposition party in the Tamil Nadu assembly. But then, it spearheaded the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965, which catapulted the party to power in 1967. I don’t believe they were not strong in their convictions. As they tasted power, they perhaps realised that they can work the system to their advantage,” said Gopalan. “If they can benefit from the system, why fight against it,” is the attitude of politicians, he said.
+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.
-Over the decades, Tamil Nadu politicians have also lost their relevance on the international scene. “The Tamil issue in Sri Lanka has gone back to where it was in the early 1980s. Today, Lanka is not ready to concede even the demands it had agreed to in 1987. Tamil Nadu politicians are in no position to influence Lanka either,” said political analyst V Suryanarayan.
+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. Accord ing 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.
-While the Dravidian majors have fallen silent on Tamil identity, Naam Thamizhar Katchi, founded by film director Seeman in 2010, is seeking to occupy that space. There aren’t many takers for Seeman’s Tamil nationalist agenda though. “Even DMK and AIADMK had rabblerousers in the past but they were relevant in a different era. Rabble- rousers have no future in present-day politics. Seeman’s support base has not grown for years,” says retired bureaucrat and political commentator MG Devasahayam.
+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. Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal are still bogged down by huge pendency, including cases older than 10 years.
-==Gounder tag failed CM as Stalin won other communities==
+Gujarat at nearly 20% has the highest percentage of cases pending for over 10 years in subordinate courts, followed by Odisha at 17%, Bihar at 16%, UP at 13%, West Bengal and Uttarakhand at 12% each and J&K at 11%.
-[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/as-dmk-chief-stalin-nibbles-through-aiadmks-traditional-vote-base-gounder-tag-fails-cm-edappadi-k-palaniswami/articleshow/69646884.cms  Jayaraj Sivan, June 4, 2019: ''The Times of India'']
-As DMK chief Stalin nibbles through AIADMK’s traditional vote base, gounder tag fails CM Edappadi K Palaniswami
+The justice delivery system needs a complete overhaul if it has to be made responsive and effective. Automation is the need of the hour where all that is required is to allow an aggrieved person to file a case online from any destination by fulfilling the required formalities and submitting documents.
-CHENNAI: The gounder caste tag, cultivated earnestly by Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for his party and the government to keep him in good stead through his present term, bombed at the hustings because he failed to keep track of DMK president M K Stalin’s game plan to nibble through other community votes, especially the arunthathiars, a sub-sect of the Scheduled Castes.
+The government has already put in place some technological platforms such as the National Judicial Data Grid and a court software where all cases are uploaded real-time with updates on the case status available online and provision to update litigants and lawyers through mobile phone and text messgaes.
-Sensing the social undercurrents, which put stumbling blocks in front of a gounder-arunthathiar truck, the DMK did backroom work to bring the two communities together much before the polls. At the behest of the DMK, a conference was organised by Adi Tamilar Peravai, an arunthathiar outfit, at Sankagiri in Namakkal Lok Sabha constituency on February 9. At the instance of the DMK, the so-called organisers invited a gounder outfit, Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), headed by E R Eswaran to the event.
+The worst sufferers of pendency are women and senior citizens, with around 15% of the 2.54 crore pending cases related to them.
-The Saankagiri conference helped the DMK unravel the arunthathiar puzzle. “The community, which had been traditionally voting for the AIADMK right from the MGR days, started thinking about a change of mind. Moreover, after my participation in the arunthathiar conference, the AIADMK’s attempts to scare them with the hardcore gounder tag of the KMDK did not work in the polls,” said Eswaran.
+Eleven lakh cases filed by senior citizens and over 26 lakh cases filed by women are pending in courts today.
-The results show while the AIADMK, contesting alone, secured the maximum margin of 2.94 lakh votes in Namakkal in western Tamil Nadu in the 2014 polls, the party lost by the maximum margin (2.65 lakh votes) in the region in the very same Namakkal Lok Sabha seat in 2019 despite having big partners like the S Ramadoss-headed PMK and ‘Captain’ Vijayakant’s DMDK with it.
+=The loss that delays inflict=
+==Compensating for lost years==
+[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=DELAY-IN-HEARING-APPEALS-AS-GOOD-AS-JUSTICE-15102015016025 ''The Times of India''], Oct 15 2015
-The poll outcome also shows that despite all the hype of Edappadi K Palaniswami promoting his gounder caste and region – so much so that he gained the moniker of Salem chief minister - gounders themselves did not consolidate under the AIADMK leadership.
+In most developed countries, a wrongful conviction can lead to the aggrieved person seeking huge compensations. The reason is despite their proven innocence, those convicted find the odds of relocating themselves in society difficult. It's for this that such countries claim an obligation to facilitate financial compensation to the wrongfully convicted.
-DMK’s ally Eswaran split gounder votes across all over western Tamil Nadu and parts of central TN, accounting for 11 Lok Sabha constituencies - Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur, the Nilgiris, Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Pollachi, Karur and Dindigul.
+In our country, the only reward for wrongful conviction is release from prison, never mind if the life of that person has been destroyed after years and sometimes decades in prison, for no fault of theirs.
-Signs of Easwaran’s influence were evident when his party organised World Kongu Tamilar Conference at Namakkal on February 3. Gounder leaders from 27 countries participated in the event and the state intelligence agency had estimated the crowd was massive.
+TOI looks at the state of justice -rather its miscarriage -that is unwittingly functioning towards a more criminalized society than a `humanistic' one. The old aphorism, “Let justice be done though the heavens fall,“ is turned on its head in our country, where the heavens fall on countless innocents who await the assistance of a system that wrongfully convicted them.
-The drubbing is the region was complete. Anbumani Ramadoss, one of the two NDA MPs to win in 2014, lost his Dharmapuri seat despite a gounder-vanniyar truck.
-Apart from alienating arunthathiars, the gounder domination in the AIADMK alienated many forward and backward classes like the mudaliars and chettiars from the ruling party, said political analyst Raveenthiran Thuraisamy.
-“This polarisation is a surprise because gounders are not known to be aggressive. But their political domination was perceived as an aggressive posture by non-gounder communities,” said Thuraisamy.
+= Undertrial prisoners=
+See [[Undertrial prisoners: India]]
-Mudaliars and chettiars account for 50,000-70,000 votes each in many Lok Sabha constituencies in the western region.
+=See also=
+[[Lawyers: India]]
-[[Category:India|T TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY
+[[Undertrial prisoners: India]]
-TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY]]
-[[Category:Places|T TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY
-TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY]]
-[[Category:Politics|T TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY
-TAMIL NADU: POLITICAL HISTORY]]

Tamil Nadu: political history, Judicial delays/ pendency: India

Revision as of 07:23, 20 February 2021

Contents

History

The history explains the causes (and AI, perhaps, the solution

Causes

Adjournments, if frequent, harass witnesses: HC

‘A Culture of delay allowed by mindsets’

Government litigation

2018: govt’s findings; efforts to reduce government litigation

Holidays/ vacations are on high side

Efforts to cut SC holidays stalled

Inefficiency to blame

Multiple causes

Not shortage of judges alone

Judge shortage, adjournments, dubious litigations

Absconding accused; evidence not given by parties

Procedural timeframes, non-adherence to

‘Stay’ orders delay cases # 6.5 years

Vacancies in Judiciary

Cost to nation of judicial delays

Cases pendency hitting India’s economic growth

Supreme Court on pending cases

Curb adjournments, speed up trials, SC tells lower courts

‘Trial judge can’t be a mute spectator to litigants’ tactics’

The Times of India’s View

SC blames HCs for delay in hearing criminal cases

SC: ‘Flood of appeals affecting verdicts’

SC: Bail Plea In 1 Week, Magisterial Trial In 6 Months

Priority hearings for those jailed for 5+ years

The extent of the problem

320 years to clear the backlog

‘Court cases increase with rise in literacy’

2006-13: Pending cases

2006-May 2016

2000-15

2012-14: Pendency in subordinate/ district courts

2012-14/ 15: Pendency down, except for crimes against children

2014: 3.19 crore pending cases

2016: Pendency of cases

September 2016/ 10% cases over 10 years old

December 2017/ 45.51 lakh cases pending in 24 HCs

Allahabad HC: 40 year pendency

2018: 10 lakh+ cases pending in 24 high courts for 10 years+

140 cases pending 60 years+; 51,000 for 37 years+

2018-21: backlog of 30-year-old cases up 61%

Acquittal rate

High rate in Delhi, 2011-15

Courtrooms, shortage of

2018: Shortage of 4,000 courtrooms

Alternate Dispute Resolution

2015> 2017: ADR a success

Pendency, strategies to tackle

Courts must follow case timelines

Retired High Court judges, use of services

Region-wise

The six worst hit states

Trial courts: Delhi, delays reduced

2015: Pendency 45 lakh in 24 HCs

2016: States with best and best disposal and causes

Allahabad HC has highest pendency

Pendency of cases in District courts, region-wise, January 2017

Success stories

2017: 4 states, 1 UT clear 10- year backlog

The loss that delays inflict

Compensating for lost years

Undertrial prisoners

See also

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

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