Nearly 3 cr cases pending in courts

Almost 3 crore cases were pending in various higher and lower courts in India at the end of 2017 even while Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary claims "the Central Government is fully committed to speedy disposal of cases in accordance with Article 21 of the Constitution."

He gave out statistics of this justice delayed and hence justice denied, based on the web portal of the National Judicial Data Grid, showing that not less than 2.5% population of the country is a victim of the inordinate delay in dispensing justice.

The grid developed as eCourts drive in mission mode provides updated information of civil and criminal cases as also pending cases in the computerised district and subordinate courts in the country. One reason for the pile-up of pending cases is that almost 40% posts of the judges are lying vacant in High Courts while vacancies not filled up in the district and subordinate courts are 26.38%.

Even the SC is no exception where only 25 judges are functioning as against the sanctioned strength of 31. Nine posts of CJs of the HC are also lying vacant.