By Prof. Vivek Singh
Today about 4 crore pending cases are in the courts of the country. Delay in justice equals injustice. Instant justice is perfect justice. There are about 62000 cases pending in the Supreme Court of India. There are 5152921 cases pending in the High Courts. About 3 crore 47 lakh disputed cases are pending in the lower and district courts. If the pending cases continue to be settled at the current pace, it will take 300 years for the courts to settle all the disputed cases.
The prime reason for the delay in the judicial system is the lack of judges in the country. The number of judges in India is very less. In Australia, there are 42 judges per one million people, 75 in Canada, 51 in Britain, 107 in the US and in India there are only 11 judges per 1 million people. 17900 judges are working in lower courts. The country needs at least 10000 more judges.
The saddest thing is that there are 150 cases in the country which have been pending for more than 60 years. 90000 cases have been pending for more than 30 years. 28.23 lakh cases have been pending in various courts for more than 10 years and 60 lakh cases have been pending for more than 5 years.
The courts need modernization. All the courts in the country should be computerized. All the judges should be provided training on using laptops, wifi and modern technology for free. Courts should have internet connectivity, video conferencing facilities. Thousands of posts for judges are lying vacant in the country, which needs to be filled.
Allahabad High Court is at the top in the country in terms of pending cases. There are more than 7.46 lakh cases pending in Allahabad High Court. 6.07 lakh cases are pending in Punjab and Haryana High Court, 5.7 lakh in Madras High Court, 5.07 lakh cases are pending in Rajasthan High Court. The Sikkim High Court has the lowest number, only 240 cases are pending.
82 lakh cases are pending in different district level and lower courts of Uttar Pradesh. There are 42 lakh disputed cases in Maharashtra while 31 lakh in Bihar. The least 681 cases are pending in Ladakh.
There are 3677089 civil cases while 1475832 criminal cases are pending in various High Courts of the country. Its reverse story is in the lower courts of the country. At present, 25 million criminal cases and 94.5 lakh civil cases are pending in various district courts and lower courts of the country.
Modernization of courts is being emphasized. About 16845 district and lower courts of the country have been computerized. The Central Government has allocated Rs. 1500 crores for this work. It is absolutely necessary to speed up the judicial process. There is a need to increase the number of judges to strengthen the judicial system. The government needs to work seriously in this direction only then the dream of giving speedy justice to the people can be realized.
(Author is a famous columnist and thinker, Political, Social and Economic Analyst. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at viveksinghmumbai@gmail.com)
