A brief Overview of the Pendency in Indian Lower Courts
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 27, 2019
Pendency in Indian courts is not a new phenomenon. For years now, the
judicial system has been plagued with a high number of pending cases. Latest
data from NJDG indicates that more than 3.1 crore cases are pending in the
lower courts with 36% of them being more than 3-years old.
Indianconstitution lays down the provision for the setup and functioning of Judiciaryin India. Article 124-147
, of Part V -Chapter IV has the provision of Supreme Court, while Articles
214-231, of Part VI Chapter V deals with rules ,regulations and  provision of the HighCourts. Our Constitutions also provides provision for Subordinate Courtsthrough Articles 233-237,
under Part VI Chapter VI.
The Judicialsystem in India works in a defined hierarchy with Supreme Court being the Apexinstitution with each state having a High Court. District courts and other subordinatecourts function at the district level & below. With detailed provisions inthe constitution, the Indian Judiciary works as an independent organizationwithout the interference of the Executive or Legislature. This framework is forthe citizens of India to seek and gain justice in line with the tenets ofConstitution of India.
While theframework is ideal, the efficacy of the Judicial system in delivering justiceis being highly compromised due to the issue of pendency in court cases leadingto inordinate delay in the disposal. We look at the issue of pendency indistrict & lower courts.
Nearly 3/4th of Pending cases are pending for more than a year
As on 25 July2019, a total of 3,10,99,044 cases are pending in the District and TalukaCourts across India.  Of these, nearly 73% of the cases are pending since more than a year.
The National
Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)provides the details of all the cases across the courts in India. This is part of
the e-courts Integrated Mission Mode Project that helps to monitor and track theperformance of the courts.
As per the dataon NJDG, out of the total pending cases – nearly 72% are criminal cases and therest are Civil Cases. The proportion of cases pending for more than one year,in both Criminal cases and Civil cases is high with 73% and 71% respectively.
Original Cases occupy a major share in the type of pending cases
Of all thecases currently pending with the District courts, 73% of original cases. Inother words, these are the cases in which the original hearing occurred in therespective courts.
Out of theOriginal cases filed, a major portion of the pending cases are Civil Suits (68.14%).
Cases relatedto MACP are nearly 16%of pending Original Cases. MACP is a promotion scheme for central governmentemployees. Land Reference cases, Marriage Petitions, Labour Court cases are fewof the other major types of Original pending cases.
Around 6% ofthe pending cases are “Appeal” cases which are filed to review, amend andoverrule the decisions that are made in the trial court or other lower courts.
Another 7% ofthe pending cases are “Application” in nature i.e. these are the applicationsreceived, like for example Bail Application or Applications received for fasttracking a case etc. Nearly 15% of the pending cases are Execution Petitionsi.e. these are the petitions filed in the courts to
execute a decree or an order.
Nearly 36% of
the pending cases are more than 3-years old
As on 25 July2019, a total of 1,11,05,333 pending cases are more than 3 years old i.e.nearly 36% of the total pending cases. Further, there are 44,74,374 cases whichare 5 to 10 years old with nearly 3/4 of them being criminal cases(33,36,912).
A total of 4,57,018pending cases are more than 20 years old, with 75,766 cases of them beingpending for more than 30 years. A majority of these long pending cases (of morethan 20 years) are criminal cases (71%).
It would besurprising to note that 1913 cases categorized as “Pre-Trial” are more than 20years old. Pre-trail stage is the stage between opening of the case and startof trial proceedings in the court.
‘Stay’ is the
main reason for Pending cases followed by ‘Securing Presence’
There are variousreasons for the court cases to be pending. The NJDG portal has details of48,214 cases along with the reason for the case being pending. It has to benoted that this number is just a sample of the total pending cases with thedata for being available only for these cases.
Of this,‘Stayed’ is the reason for pendency in 45.67% of the cases. Nearly 26% of thecases are marked as pending because the law enforcement authorities were unableto secure the presence of the people required for the court hearing. Another 16%of the cases are pending because of being bulky cases.
Improvement in
disposal does not reduce pendency because of increase in new cases
The number ofcases being disposed-off every year has seen an increasing trend over the lastfour years. However, the number of new cases registered every year has alsobeen on the rise over the years.  This isresulting in new cases being piled up over the already existing cases.
The number ofcases disposed for 2015 was 25,18,968 where as the number of cases disposed in2018 was 31,56,579 which is an increase of almost 25%. However, thecorresponding figures for Instituted (new) cases were 29,92,798 and 32,99,370respectively. Such increase in the new cases has also added to the pendency.
So far in 2019,a total of 17,54,963 cases have already been disposed, but at the same time, 18,13,957cases have been registered.
Government
being the major litigant and lack of initiatives contributing towards pending
cases
Pendency ofCourt cases has been a longstanding problem plaguing our Judiciary system. Thereare many reasons that contribute towards the pending cases. Few of theimportant ones include:
Featured Image: Pendency in Indian Lower Courts