Tareekh Pe Tareekh! 5 Crore Cases Pending in Courts Across India, Data Reveals

(5.07 crore cases are pending in various courts, data by the Union Law Ministry has revealed)

(Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

The judiciary in India has a pendency of over five crore cases, data released by the Union Law Ministry has revealed. According to Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, as many as 5.07 crore cases are awaiting resolution in different parts of the country.

Meghwal revealed this information in the Rajya Sabha during question hour, in response to questions from BJD MP Sasmit Patra and AAP's Sanjeev Arora.

The law minister also tabled a complete break-up of the pendency at each level of the judiciary.

In terms of states, 1.18 crore cases are pending in courts in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra at 54 lakh. This data was provided by the law ministry in response to questions by MPs Rahul Kaswan, Hibi Eden and Khalilur Rahaman.

What Are the Reasons for the Delay?

When he was asked to explain the reasons for the delay in resolving cases, the minister replied that the pendency is caused by issues like "Availability of physical infrastructure and supporting court staff, the complexity of facts involved, the nature of evidence, the cooperation of stakeholders viz. bar, investigation agencies, witnesses, and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures".

“In case of pendency of criminal cases, the criminal justice system functions on assistance from various agencies, viz. Police, Prosecution, Forensic Labs, Handwriting Experts and Medico-Legal Experts. Delay in providing assistance by allied agencies also entails a delay in disposal of cases,” the minister said in his reply.

To understand the problem better, The Quint spoke to advocate Areeb Uddin Ahmed, a lawyer based in Lucknow.

"In my opinion, especially the Supreme Court's disposal rate is decent, but the problem of pendency starts when the court is not laying down the 'law'.”

Advocate Areeb Uddin Ahmed

According to him, the Supreme Court shouldn't focus just on providing "access", but also on "laying down the law" so that it can help lower courts dispose of matters more effectively.

"Reference may be drawn on Aparna Chandra's book, ‘Court on Trial’, where the authors concluded that the Supreme Court may be a people's court, but not in the true sense because it is only providing access to the deprived ones, but while deciding the case, there's no law being laid down, which will help the Subordinate courts and especially High Courts to dispose of the matters accordingly, in pursuance of the law being laid down," Advocate Ahmed said.

Successive chief justices of India have flagged the issue of judicial pendency.

In 2016, the then Chief Justice of India, Justice TS Thakur, was nearly in tears as he lamented how the country’s 21,000 judges could handle tens of millions of cases.

On 1 June 2021, Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah voiced their frustration, noting that 95 percent of the cases before them were "frivolous." They expressed their dismay by stating, "We are seized with matters of national importance, but still we have to read all this."