International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research

ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

THE IMPACT OF PENDING COURT CASES ON THE EFFICACY OF

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN INDIA: “JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE
DENIED”

Ananya Dalmia

Unison World School

DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2023.v08i10.005 URL: https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2023.v08i10.005

Received: 14 August 2023 / Accepted: 10 October 2023 / Published: 20 October 2023

ABSTRACT

In a progressive and developing society, one of the sound principles of the felonious justice
system is that “Justice delayed is justice denied'. The detention in division of justice negatively
affects the two important abecedarian rights which are, right to pierce justice and the rule of
Law. Both are the part of the Indian Constitution. In colourful opinions, the Indian Supreme
Court has under scored the significance of quick trial. Right to speedy trial is one of the angles of
the Right to life and particular liberty under Composition 21 of the constitution of India.
According to the Ministry of law, there are nearly five crore cases are pending as of now in
courts3. India is on the top in pending of cases across the globe. Despite the establishment of the
bars, the situation of pendency is getting worse. There are several reasons which can be
attributed to the situation of pendency of cases. Government needs to act in controlling the
backlog of cases so that time justice could be communicated to all parts of the society. In this
exploration paper, the author discusses the problems with the Indian bar and the need to
strengthen court operation to reduce case pending times.

Keywords: Pendency, Courts, Justice, Cases, Judiciary, Delay.

Introduction

There's a notorious quotation by American champion Jerome Frank that in a republic the court
belongs not to the attorneys and judges, but it belongs to the citizens. The Constitution of India
in its preamble vows to guarantee justice social, political, and profitable. But it's a matter of
shame that till moment after 70 times of independence there are certain people who are far
behind the reach of the Justice. The huge pendency of cases up to 32 million across the different
courts in India shows the intensity of excrescencies our judicial system is facing.

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

Pendency of massive backlog cases in the Indian Legal System has come a chain in the path of
penetrating justice to the displeased party. The detention in the delivery of justice affects the two
abecedarian rights access to justice and rule of law handed by the constitution of India, hereafter
affecting all the sections of the society. The Apex Court in several of its judgement have
stressed the need for speedy trial. The conception of speedy trial comes under the dimensions of
composition 21 as an essential part of abecedarian right to life and particular liberty under the
constitution of India.

The time from form of the cases to its disposal crosses the life span of the displeased party.
There's a common belief in India that the civil suits pass from one generation to another as a
scale gift. According to the doctrine of separation of power, the bar is the part of the State, and it's
the responsibility of the state to give fair, reasonable, and speedy justice to all its citizens.

The Right to speedy trial is an abecedarian right as elevated in the corner document of English
law “Magna Carta” an abecedarian right of life and particular liberty as said under composition
21 of the Indian Constitution, and no one can deny it except as the procedure laid down by the
laws. In the case the indicted is denied similar rights he's liable to reach the Supreme Court of
India under Article 32 for the enforcement of similar abecedarian rights.

Justice Krishna Iyer in Babu Singh and Ors vs State of U.P while deciding the matter of bail said
that “our justice system indeed in grave cases suffers the slow- stir pattern which is murderous to
the failure trail whatever the ultimate decision is. Speedy trial is a part of social justice as the
community is concerned about the miscreant being condignly and eventually penalized within
the reasonable time and the innocent being acquitted from the devilish fire of the felonious
proceedings”.

Effect on the society:

As we know India was a social country and since the last 500 times all the rights of the Indians
were suppressed so to enhance their Right Art-39 A was introduced in the Indian constitution which
directs the state- to secure equal justice and free legal aid for the citizens. The last 57 times data
shows that the state has failed exactly on addressing some vastly introductory issues quick and
precious justice and guarding the rights of the poor and vulnerable. Since India is a vast country
of colourful persuasions, India has a large no. of population with lack of symmetric arrangement
of courts and public services, then the system is collapsing with 30 million cases that take so crucial
time that indeed a generation isn't sufficient to get any type of redressal.

Denial of prompt justice amounts to the denial of justice-Timely disposal of cases is essential to
keep rule of law and give access to justice. Speedy trial is a part of the right to life and liberty
guaranteed under Composition 21 of the Constitution. Due to the increase in pendency of cases a

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

simple civil case that can be resolved within many months takes times to get resolved. Not only
civil but felonious cases are there too which are pending for further than 15 times, cases in which
the indicted is in guardianship but still due to sleepy police disquisition and pendency of cases it
takes times to apportion justice causing grave injury to the abecedarian rights of the citizens of
India.

Affects mortal rights- Overcrowding of the incarcerations, formerly structure deficient, in some
cases beyond 150 of the capacity, results in violation of mortal rights. In Felonious cases, from the
day the indicted is captured till the judgement of the case comes, he's either kept in jail or released
on bail, the other script isn't so frequent as the first one, and due to the pendency of cases in courts,
normal felonious cases take further time to get decided due to which the indicted whether
shamefaced or not remains in jail and because of that incarcerations get overcrowded. Due to which
conditions for an internee cannot be met leading to a mortal rights violation.

Corruptions increases - Due to the increase in pendency of cases, people many times don't fight
for their rights, or the wrongs caused to them. The reason behind this is simply that people know
that if they file a suit in court, it will take years to resolve to lead to wastage of time and money.
Some instead of fighting the wrong, try to resolve the matter outside the court in an illegal way
i.e., by bribing the police officer not to file an FIR against them.

Psychological stress to accused and his family: When a case lasts for years, a lot of time, energy
and money is spent on it. Along with this, parties and their family members go through mental
trauma and stress. Long pending matters in the court makes them uncertain about the outcome of
this case and thus this goes on increasing if the matter last longer.

Cases which can be taken as examples: -

Uphar Cinema Case A couple years ago a committee was set up under the vision of justice V.S.
Mali math to examine changes and its report came, it took 6 years to prove 59 people died
because of criminal negligence of cinema management and Delhi government.

In the case of Vakil Prasad Singh v. State of Bihar, the court has emphasised the judicial
protection of the right enshrined in the constitution under Article 21 through speedy investigation
and speedy justice. They believed that it is essential for the right to life and personal liberty to be
protected, especially in the judicial sense and, as previously mentioned, to put into context the
criminal cases pending before the courts.

In the case of Santosh De v. Archana Guha, the court saw that the case had been going on for
14 years, and hence, they were quashed. Furthermore, there was an unexplained delay for eight
years, and the court held that it infringed the right to a speedy trial. This case well explained the

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

need for speedy justice in such cases where there is no advancement in the proceedings for an
extended period, and the accused/convict has been suffering due to the lag in the proceedings
about their case, which violates a person's fundamental right to life and personal liberty.

The current example of justice delayed is Nirbhaya case, which was 3 Judge-Bench judgement
headed by Justice R Bahumathi and other judges Justice Bhushan and Justice A S Bopanna,
where all 4 men were convicted for the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case and murder case, were
finally hanged 7 years after brutal crime. This case caused a lot of riots in the society and made
the youth prevent from judicial system of India. After this case there were a lot of changes
introduced, the Criminal Amendment Act, 2013 is also popularly referred to as the Anti-rape
Act. Under this change, new offences such as stalking, acid attacks, and voyeurism were added
into the definition of rape Even the threat of rape is now a crime, and the person will be punished
for the same. The short, smallest sentence was changed from seven years to ten years considering
the increase in the number of rape cases. In cases that led to the death of the victim or the victim
being in a vegetative state, the smallest sentence was increased to 20 years.

Similarly, Ayodhya verdict, which was 5 Judge-Bench headed by Chief Justice of India and the
other judges where Justice S A Bobde, Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice D Y Chandrabhushan and
Justice Abdul Nazeer, the judgement came on November 9, 2019 and with this one of the most
old case was solved, the constitution bench announced the construction of Ram Mandir at the site
where the Babri Masjid once stood in Ayodhya thus ending the centuries-long disputes between
the Hindus and Muslims. SC also told the central govt to distribute a prominent and suitable five-
acre plot for Muslims to construct a mosque in Ayodhya. This created religion discrimination in
the country and caused civil riots between Hindu and Muslims. It disrupted the economy and
equality.

Assume an in-depth examination of the evolution of swift justice. In these cases, it highlights a
highly pertinent and unresolved issue of pendency and a sense of confusion among the courts
about the gravity of cases and which ones do and do not require a more rapid functioning of the
law, which is caused by the judiciary's overwork at the subordinate levels.

Lok Adalat’s

Lok Adalat also known as people’s court. It is present in every district. It consists of chairperson
who is sitting or retired judicial officer, social activists or member of legal profession. To achieve
the aim enshrined in Article 39A of the Constitution of India, the Legal Services Authorities Act,
1987 was enacted. Its aim is to supply free legal aid to weaker sections of the society to ensure
that justice is delivered to every person in the society irrespective of their economic condition.

Any dispute pending in the subordinate court can be brought into the Lok Adalat. If any one

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party wants that the case should be referred to the Lok Adalat’s the other party should be given a
prior notice.

The process of Lok Adalat is not complex as the regular court has during the trail. Because of it
this makes trail fast and settle the dispute. The advantage of the Lok Adalat is that the parties
directly interact with the judge which helps the judge in figuring out case. Lok Adalat’s has
authority to all the compoundable offences not to the non-compoundable offences.

The Gram Nyaya Layas act 2008

Gram Nyaya Layas (court) is like a Mobile Courts. In year 2009 an act came into force called
The Gram Nyaya kayas act 2008. Its purpose is to supply access to justice to people at their
doorstep and to ensure justice to every person without social, economic barriers. Out of 29 states
of India only 11 states have notified 320 Gram Nyaya Layas out of which 204 have become
operational..

These courts work in village and resolve the dispute by way of conciliation process. These courts
consist of judicial magistrate first class appointed by state government in consultation with the
concerned high court. Criminal appeals from gram Nyaya Laya were directed to session court of
concerned district and Civil appeal directed to district courts. The gram Nyaya Layas are not
bound with the rules of The Indian Evidence Act 1872, these works on the guidelines made by
the high court and based on principle of natural Justice.

According to section 3(1) of the act, 5000-gram Nyaya Layas were expected to be setup by the
end of year 2018. State like Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are working
on gram Nyaya Layas to reduce the pendency of cases, other states should promote gram Nyaya
Layas.

Inheritance of British legal system:

We have inherited British legal system, Britishers prescribed it at that time, without considering
the need of Indian society nor did they consider the practical's of the procedure. So, this system is
drawn from diverse sources without seeing the ground realities. Some people today prefer to
keep quiet, rather than go to the court of law.

So, now this system is more Indianized for making it fit to society. It is heard that in ancient time
justice system was exceptionally good. The disputes were settled on the spot by delivering
justice. But ancient justice proceedings were oral in general and therefore not much record is
available. Now we can take modem knowledge from the countries, which have best justice
delivery system by getting acquainted with the procedure followed there, if fit to Indian society.

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

The civil and criminal procedure codes and the laws of evidence must be substantially revised to
meet the requirements of modem judicial administration. Though most of procedural laws are
effective even today but some provision needs revision, especially the civil laws. To lessen the
burden of cases, we may introduce the concept of’ Plea-bargaining' by decriminalization of those
wrongs, which can justly be dealt with by compensatory remedies (Compensation to victim like
in tort).

REASONS

1. Reasons for Pendency of Cases

1.1 People becoming aware of their rights: With the advancement in science and technology,
people are becoming more aware about their rights. Before the various advancements, people
especially in rural areas were used to being unaware of their rights.

But the moment the technology extended its hands up to the rural and urban areas, they came
across the rights they had never thought of. Multiple NGOs could be seen working for the
welfare of the society such as against corruption, for LGBTQ rights, orphanages, several evil
practices such as dowry and forceful abortion etc. Apart from this, the Government is also taking
steps to make the people know about their rights. Government’s step in introducing the RTI was
one of those steps. Now when people know their rights through all such mechanisms as
discussed above, they readily approach the courts, if any infringement is caused to them. This led
to the situation of piling up the cases day by day but there was no system in the judicial domain
to handle such pendency of the cases. Neither the infrastructure nor the adequate judicial staff.
Therefore, pendency of cases was an obvious result.

1.2 Inadequate number of judges: Inadequacy of judges is one of the significant factors for the
pendency of the cases. Seeing the alarming rate of pendency of cases, the Union government has
also increased the strength of Supreme Court judges from 31 to 34. At present 33 justices are
working at the apex court along with the Chief Justice of India. According to the statistical data
provided by the Ministry of Law and Justice, there are around 400 vacancies in the various High
Courts across India. And this number of vacancies in the subordinate judiciary is very dreadful
which is about 5000. Once while addressing a seminar former Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh
Thakur said that “vacancies in the High Courts have become a national challenge and the efforts
are made to persuade the government to speed up this matter. The Ministry of law and justice
now is planning a purpose such as a mechanism which will recruit the judges in the same manner
as UPSC recruits the IAS, IFS etc. Various Law Commission Reports had also suggested to fill
up the vacancies swiftly, otherwise the problem of pendency of cases could be even worse than it
is right now.

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1.3 Insufficiency of Courts: Insufficiency of courts is also one of the reasons why there are so
many pending cases in the courts. Lack of judicial infrastructure not only becomes the reason for
pending cases it also loses the trust and confidence of the public in the judiciary. Cybercrimes
are committed through the internet. Easy access to the internet and mode of committing offence
through this channel being simple has caused increment in the cybercrimes. Owing to these
crimes, registration of cases automatically rises. Therefore, for specified crimes, special courts
are being set-up gradually, but rural areas should also be kept in mind for the same reason.

1.4 Misuse of RTI and PIL: The commencement of the RTI and PIL has been from 2005 and
1980’s, respectively. These two tools were introduced for the representation and protection of the
rights of the citizens. But as the time passed, people started to use them for their personal
benefits which could be reaped by coercing the public authorities under the influence of RTI and
for publicity through PILs. In a petition through PIL prayed the High Court issue a writ of
mandamus under article 226 of the constitution directing the respondents to issue orders for to
conduct compulsory medical tests of the candidates who were contesting the legislative
Assembly Elections in Tamil Nadu. This was filed to protect the lakhs of voters from dismissing
this PIL citing groundless, vexatious and publicity stunt. In equivalent manner, sometimes it is
seen that RTI applications are filed to seek personal benefits and exerting under influences over
the authorities. Using such useful tools in this manner is a travesty of the system. High Courts
are often flooded with such applications and PILs and thus wasting the time and energy of the
courts and judges.

1.5 Lack of Infrastructure and Administrative ability: It is one of the significant factors
behind pendency of cases in courts. Judicial infrastructure and the expert staff are keys to reduce
the burden of cases over the courts. They are the modes through which dispensation of justice is
done. First, lack of infrastructure is not only limited to judicial complex buildings but also to the
other materials such as availability of technical gadgets, access to internet, number of courts etc.
In India, courts are hardly less with all such equipment. Primarily, requirement is of courts.
Establishment of courts would further need the appointment of new judicial officers who are
crucial to dispose of the cases often. Now, if there is sufficient availability of judicial
infrastructure, then the next need would arise of appointing the staff in it. Not just manual staff,
rather all the staff should be well conversant with the proper functioning of all technical
equipment such as computer system, projectile system etc. There should be corresponding duty
upon the government to provide proper ability to the judicial officers along with supplying
technical gadgets.

1.6 Burden of Government Cases: There is a huge backlog of cases for which the Central and
the State Government are responsible. As per the statistics provided by legal information. The
Management and Briefing System (LIMBS) reveals that for most of the cases which are pending
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(about 45%) in the Indian court, the Union and the State Governments are liable.

1.7 Investigative agencies generally delay: the investigation of crime It is generally heard that
the accused gets bail as the investigating agency did not give charge sheet within statutory
period. The combination of several functions, such as crime investigation, riot control,
intelligence gathering, and security of VIPs by a single police force has a devastating effect on
the criminal justice system. Nowadays, the crime investigation is not immune from the partisan
politics. The power of the government to drop criminal charges against the accused has further
abused it. The lethargic police investigation is also a ground of slow process of law.

2. Reasons of delay in Criminal matters:

1. Delay in investigation in criminal matters: The procedural aspects of the criminal law has
been dealt with by Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Under the scheme of CrPC, no time limit
has been fixed for completion of the investigation in a criminal matter except in the sexual cases.
It is the prerogative of the enforcement agency that within how much time, it completes the
investigation. This lacuna of not setting a reasonable bar for completion of investigation is fully
dominated by the police officers. Sometimes, they keep on doing investigations under one
pretext or the other for their ulterior motives. This directly results in not filing the charge sheet.
In the absence of a charge sheet, the court was unable to take cognizance of the case and held a
trial. Thus, late-filing charge sheets due to lengthy and unending investigations become the
reasons for trilling up of the cases in the recorded room of the courts.

2. Frequent Adjournments: As per section 309 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, trial of a
case should be continued daily unless it is necessary to adjourn up to a next day. But as in the
civil cases, in criminal matters also, adjournments are given in a routinely manner which
enhances the prudency of cases.

3. Excessive Cross Examination: This issue plays a significant part in hampering the case.
occasionally in the court while cross examination of a substantiation, inapplicable and libelous
questions are asked, indeed though they're banned by the Indian substantiation Act. Comparable
questions make the process of cross examinations lengthy and therefore wastes the time of the
court which increases pendency of the cases.

4. Lack of Will on behalf of Judges/ Adjudicators: Indeed, if there's everything which could
be used to resolve the problem of pendency of cases, it'll continue growing, if the judicial
officers call for the will of removing the pendency. A judicial officer Is obliged to work with
internal and physical spirit to reduce the pendency of the cases However, it’ll lead to many
drastic consequences like proliferation in pendency of cases, if they call for this will. 2.5 Fast
growing population: Due to fast growing population, there would be more breach of rights which

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
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results in litigation. Increment in litigation leads to many cases which results in pendency of
cases.

5. Salaries and Perks of judges: If a sound salary and benefits are provided to the judges, then
better lawyers would be interested in becoming judges. Today, less lawyers are interested in
becoming judges because of which the quality of judges is down and due to this justice delivery
system is also suffering.

3. Reasons for delay in civil cases:

The situation of pendency of civil matters in Indian courts is worrisome. If we compare the time
taken by the courts in disposing of the civil period taken by the courts in disposing of the civil
and criminal cases, then civil matters lag far behind the criminals in disposal rate. There are
many procedural reasons behind the long pendency of civil cases which are:

1. Frequent adjournment:

As per the scheme of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 under Order XVII Rule 1, adjournments
can only be granted for three times in a civil case. But courts do not strictly adhere to this rule
and grant routinely adjournments to the parties on one pretext or the other. However, more than
three adjournments can also be supplied but those must be granted imposing heavy costs. Thus,
unnecessary adjournments become the major reason for delay in disposal of the civil matters. For
the efficiency of the courts, it must be prevented.

2. non-adherence to the section 89 of the Civil Procedure Code:

Section 89 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 deals with the methods which can be adopted to
resolve the disputes outside the court. It depends upon the nature of the subject-matter of the
dispute whether it could be sent for the alternate dispute resolution. ADR (Alternate Dispute
Resolution) consists of various methods like Arbitration, conciliation, Meditation, Judicial
settlement and Lok-Adalat's. Basically, this section was added keeping in mind the purpose of
quick disposal of cases so that courts are not burdened with too many cases at a time. It is the
duty of the court and lawyers to decide a dispute outside the courtroom if it is so needed.

Unnecessarily burdening the courts with the case which could be resolved outside the court is the
wastage of time and energy of courts and parties. But in practice, it is hardly noticed that
disputes are being referred to the meditation, arbitration etc. cells. Rather as a daily routine, all
the matters are placed before the judges and are being continued without the tenability of the
cases. This is the major reason behind the pendency of civil cases in India.

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3. non-appearance of the parties on hearing date:

It is also a significant reason the civil cases are still pending for years. Whenever the court fixes
a date of hearing, either the plaintiff or the defendant stays absent. Their absence may be for
many reasons like non-preparedness of documents, inability of a witness to attend the court,
health issues of counsel or the parties or sometimes, parties deliberately avoid attending the court
so that case may last a bit longer. This kind of attitude of the parties in not attending the court
becomes the reason for lasting the cases forever.

4. Non-compliance with the order X of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908:

Order X of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 provides that the court would examine the parties
orally for the purpose of bringing out the real controversy between the parties. When real conflict
is found out, it becomes easy for the court to frame the issues. Non-examination of the parties
leads to various kinds of anomalies and causes delay in framing the issues. Unless issues are
settled properly, the suit cannot be decided. Therefore, non-examination of the parties also
becomes the reasons for pendency of cases.

Suggestions to reduce the pendency of cases:

1. Adoption of ADR methods: Encouragement to ADR (Alternate Dispute Resolution) is one of

the ways through which pendency of the civil cases can be reduced. As per section 89 CPC,
proper cases which can be settled amicably through mediation, judicial settlement or arbitration
etc. must be sent for the same. It will lead to reduction in pending cases. Following the law, in
fact, will solve the problem of pendency to a great level. But we instead of following the civil
procedure, always find the solutions somewhere else. However, not each matter can be sent to
the ADR method. Only those matters which are suitable for ADR must be sent to it, otherwise,
there can be injustice.

2. Increase appointment of judges and court premises: Regular appointments of the judicial
officers would certainly reduce the pendency of cases to a certain extent. More availability of the
judge would not only reduce the pendency, but it will also level up the qualitative judgements.
Along with appointment of new judicial officers, there is also a need for setting up new courts.
Central and the State Governments should pay attention in erecting more judicial complexes.

3. Increase the retirement age of judges: There is a need to increase the retirement age of the
judges. The 124th Amendment Bill was moved by the Central Government in the term of 15th
Lok-Sabha. This Bill sought to increase the retirement age from 62 to 65. But it could not be
passed because of the dissolution of the Lok- Sabha. Judges gain the experiences throughout
their life but after retirement, either they are made Chairperson of some committee or start

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independent practice.

4. Increase in working days: The Honourable Supreme Court and the High Courts across the
Indian do not have adequate working days in a year. Most of the days are either public holidays
or vacations in various times-Generally apex court works around 190 days in a year and the High
Court’s working days vary from 175-210 (in various states).

5. Setting up a regional bench of the apex court: Looking at the number of cases that are
pending in the Supreme Court, there is a need of setting up one more branch of the apex court
especially in southern India so that burden of the cases can be reduced over the Supreme Court.
In fact, former Vice President Venkayya Naidu had proposed to prove four regional benches of
the Supreme Court across India.

6. Setting up all India Judicial Services: As of now, States are the sole authorities which
appoint the newly judicial officers. Every state across the nation has its procedure and time of
recruiting the judges. All Indian Judicial Services will not only bring transparency, but it will
also speed up the process of recruitment of judges.

7. Our criminal justice system has the urgent requirement of Independent Investigative Agency.
Delay in police investigation is also one reason due to which cases linger on for years. It is,
therefore, good to create an independent wing of police force, fully in charge of crime
investigation, and functioning under the direct control of independent prosecutors. That wing
should be accountable to judiciary and not to government of a time. The practice of torture and
third-degree methods, extra judicial execution in fake encounters may be stopped also when
crime investigation machinery became accountable to judiciary. Such type of police wings also
became knowledgeable about the type and method of the evidence needed. Hence, baseless
cases, which lead acquittal, also could come down. So, there should be co-ordination between
police and prosecuting agencies. The early disposal of case also boosts the morals of police force
and will save time, which would have been taken in producing arrestee to the court Horn time to
time.

DATA:

The data below shows us the pendency of cases in civil and criminal matters. The following data
has been taken from (NJDG) National Judicial Data Grid. This data shows us that it will take
more than 300 years to clear the backlog of cases in Indian courts it gives us a proof that our
criminal justice system is sick, stagnant and in urgent need of a complete overhaul.

Pendency and Vacancies in the Judiciary: Vital Stats

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Pendency of cases rising across courts; over four and a half crore cases pending at present

 Between 2010 and 2020, pendency across all courts grew by 2.8% annually. As of
September 15, 2021, over 4.5 crore cases were pending across all courts in India. Of
these, 87.6% cases were pending in subordinate courts and 12.3% in High Courts.

 This implies that, if no new cases were to be filed, the time taken by courts to dispose of
all the pending cases at the current disposal rate would be 1.3 years for the Supreme
Court and three years each for High Courts and subordinate courts.

 The pendency of cases in Supreme Court was 70,572 as of May 2, 2022, according to the
Supreme Court site.

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Vacancies in the judiciary also contribute to high pendency of cases

There is a shortage of judges to decide cases. As of 2021, the Supreme Court had one vacancy
out of the sanctioned strength of 34 judges. In the High Courts, 42% of the total sanctioned posts
for judges were vacant (465 out of 1,098). Five High Courts (Telangana, Patna, Rajasthan,
Odisha, and Delhi) had more than 50% vacancies. High Courts of Meghalaya and Manipur had
no vacancies.

PENDENCY OF CASES

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

Evidence/Argument/Judgment

MATTER TYPE PENDENCY

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

Execution Case Type Wise Pendency

Application Case Type Wise Pendency

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

Original Case Type Wise Pendency

Appeal Case Type Wise Pendency

Delay Reason Pendency Pie Chart

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 International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

CONCLUSION:

A judicial system that cares only about evidence and facts shouldn’t worry about taming the souls
of the plaintiff and the defendant with time rather give justice as quick as it can, this delay/denial
of justice leads to increasing "Out of Court settlements" which are cheaper and quicker thereby
leading to the loss of trust in our Judicial System.

The judiciary is part of our democracy, and all its implications must be imported into the judicial
process. Once we accept the proposition that in a democratic society the court system plays a
crucial role in seeing that neither licence nor absolutism becomes dominant, the difficult tasks of
the court vividly stare us in the face. As Chief Justice Burger has noted: "A sense of confidence
in the courts is essential to maintain the fabric of ordered liberty for a free people and three
things could destroy that confidence and do incalculable damage to society: that people come to
believe that inefficiency and delay will drain even a just judgment of its value; that people who
have long been exploited in the smaller transactions of daily life come to believe that courts
cannot vindicate their legal rights from fraud and over-reaching; that people come to believe the
law - in the larger sense - cannot fulfil its primary function to protect them and their families in
their homes, at their work, and on the public streets”.

The justice delivery system is on the verge of collapse with more than 30 million cases clogging
the system. There are cases that take so much of time that even a generation is too short to get
any type of redressal. As justice delayed is justice denied, similarly, the saying, justice hurried is
justice buried is equally true. Therefore, sufficient, reasonable and due hearing of every case with
consideration of its circumstances is the necessary requirement of natural justice and balance of
convenience. In fact, the untiring efforts put by fear and flavourless Indian Judiciary is doing
commendable job of imparting justice despite so many difficulties, which created faith of public
in the rule. Of law is a great achievement, which really requires deep appreciation.

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ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume:08, Issue:10 "October 2023"

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