Set up mechanism to speed up cases: CJI to high courts

MUST TAKE STOCK EVERY MONTH OF CASES IN HIGH COURTS AND SUBORDINATE COURTS, CJI MISRA URGES HC CHIEF JUSTICES

NEW DELHI: CJI Dipak Misra has written to all high court chief justices advising them to set up a new disposal review mechanism to clear cases on priority and cut the heavy backlog that blights India’s justice-delivery system.

The letter, written recently, suggests a framework be put in place whereby each high court “every month takes stock of cases filed and disposed” there as well as in subordinate courts.

More than 27 million cases are pending in various lower courts through the country, statistics available on the National Judicial Data grid website show, of which 8.2 million are of civil nature and 18.9 million criminal.

While the disposal of old cases and those in prioritised categories must be accelerated, the Chief Justice of India has said, “at the same time efforts must be made to ensure that at least the overall disposal matches with the overall institution (filing) of cases.”

With over 6.5 million cases, UP has the highest rate of pendency among states, followed by Maharashtra, West Bengal and Bihar, where the rate is considerably high as well. Over 3.7 million cases are pending in 24 high courts across the country, of which over a million date back more than 10 years.

Taking note of the magnitude of the problem, the CJI says that the new mechanism must be put in place in addition to the arrears committees set up earlier to formulate steps to reduce pendency at high and district courts.