In a blow to the concept of ‘speedy justice’, the number of
cases pending at the Supreme Court has gone over 50,000 for the first time in
a decade. With computerisation of the Supreme Court registry and the use of
infotech in docket management, the backlog in the 1990s was brought down from
over one lakh to a manageable 20,000. But as of March 31, 2009, the figure
stood at 50,163, the highest in the last decade.
It shows that the rush of litigants, despite an increased
disposal rate, has proved more than a match for the judges, who often hear 80
cases or more every day. The pendency has steadily crept upwards since 2006,
when it stood at 34,649. In January 2007, it rose to 39,780, a jump of over
5,000 cases. Justice K. G. Balakrishnan took over as the Chief Justice of
India at this time and tried to put in place mechanisms to arrest the
spiralling wait-list. Despite quicker clearance, the Court failed to cut down
on the pending list as the number of new cases swelled every year. By January
2008, the figure had registered a steep jump of over 7,000 cases to reach
46,926. Exactly a year later, it was 49,819, and the 50,000 figure was
breached in March. A similar trend was seen at the level of High Courts and
Trial Courts. The 21 High Courts, working with a strength of 635 judges as
against a sanctioned strength of 886, reported a pendency of 38.7 lakh cases
on January 1, 2009. It’s a rise of 1.3 lakh cases from January 2008, when the
figure was 37.4 lakh. The Trial Courts, with a judge strength of 13,556 as
against a sanctioned strength of 16,685, were burdened with an additional ten
lakh cases by January 2009, when the pendency figure was 2.64 crore. It stood
at 2.54 crore cases exactly a year ago.
CJI Balakrishnan has been repeatedly requesting state
governments to induct additional 10,000 judges to tackle the huge backlog, but
most of them have brushed aside the only practical solution by citing a funds
crunch.
(Source : The Times of India, 28-5-2009)
