In India, 40 Million Cases Pending in Trial Courts, Average Case Takes 30 Years

NEW DELHI (IANS) – India’s Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, citing the 40 million cases pending in trial courts and several million cases in the high courts, on April 29, said that a “pall of gloom settles” and it is a “hopeless situation”.

“When we see the result, a pall of gloom settles… you find that you are in a hopeless situation, a feeling of hopelessness starts developing.”

He said there are 24,000 judges at the trial court level and over 600 judges at the high court level. “The arrears in the trial courts are 40 million cases. So far as the pendency in high courts is concerned — 4.2 million civil cases, 1.6 million criminal cases,” he said.

Venugopal added that in trial courts, cases are pending for 30 years, and at high court level cases are pending for 15 years, 10 years and so on. “Therefore, the question is with an average pendency of 8 years in the trial court, 8 years in the high court. How would you believe that the public has confidence in the justice delivery system,” he asked.

Providing justice, AG said is the most pressing issue and the Chief Justices of the high courts would have to innovate and find reforms.

He was speaking at a reception held by the Supreme Court Bar Association for Chief Justices of various high courts, he said that technological advancements adopted by the judiciary have enabled it to track the pendency of cases and added that an e-committee headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, is putting the entire data on the National Judicial Data Grid.

The event was attended by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, judges of the Supreme Court and members of the Bar.