From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The backlog of cases has crossed the 5 crore mark with 5,00,39,981 cases pending before the Indian courts.
India, with its vast and diverse legal system, is grappling with an ever-growing caseload, leading to a staggering pendency of cases across its courts. With India’s backlog of cases crossing the 5-crore mark, Sunny Deol’s infamous dialoge fro Damini comes to mind: “Tarikh par tarikh, Lekin insaaf nahi mila my lord. Insaaf nahi mila…mili hai toh sirf yes tarikh.”
The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) conveys the grim picture of the backlog of cases haunting India. The NJDG’s data reveals that about 4.38 crore cases (4,38,80,345 cases) lay pending before the district and lower courts. Furthermore, 68,745 cases are pending before the Supreme Court as on June 1, 2023 as per its website.
Out of the 4.38 crore cases pending before the District and Taluka Courts, the NJDG data reveals that about 1.09 crore civil cases (1,09,86,689 cases) are pending before the courts while 3.28 crore crore crimial cases (3,28,93,656) are contributing to the unprecedented backlog of cases in India’s trial courts.
India’s 25 High Courts suffer from staggering backlog of 60.9 lakh cases, out of which 43.7 lakh are civil cases and 17.13 criminal cases waiting for their turn. To put into perspective, on average about 2,43,636 cases are pending before the High Courts.
The interplay of procedural complexities, numerous adjournments prolonging trials, repetitive litigation practices and archaic laws inherited from the colonial past impose an onerous burden on the courts.
The outdated laws and procedures lead to an exacerbated bottleneck of cases, slowing down the pace of delivery of justice and indicating the need for comprehensive legal reforms and streamlining the judicial system.
The mounting pendency crisis continues to haunt the public, as the prolonged delays in securing justice result in a denial of justice to the litigants. The backlog undermines the principle of “justice delayed is justice denied.”
Considering that about 14.03 lakh cases before the various High Courts are pending for more than a decade, with more than 1 out of 100 cases pending for over 30 years, placing an enormous emotional, financial and psychological burden on te litigants and hitting their lives. Individuals and businesses suffer du to unresoved legal disputes for years, some times for decades.
