At which stage are cases pending in Indian courts?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 21, 2019
Pendency of court cases
is a major issue plaguing the judicial system in India. There are different
stages that a civil & criminal case goes through before a judgment is
pronounced. Here is a look at the various stages and the pendency at these
stages.
Indian judicialsystem is fraught with a high volume of pending cases. There are nearly 3.1
crore cases pending in District and Taluka Courts of India. Further, nearly 44 Lakh court
cases are pending in the high courts. In an earlier
article, this issue of pendency of cases in the lower courts was discussed,especially with regards to the age of the cases, reasons for pendency and typeof cases that are pending in the courts.  The delay in delivering a judgement and tobring a closure to the case, has a great bearing on the efficacy of the justicesystem in India.
Apart from the reasons for the pendency in courts, understanding the various stages of the court proceedings and identifying the bottle necks would help focus on specific issues. In this story, the typical flow of civil & criminal cases is discussed along with the stages at which the cases are stuck as per data available on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) portal.
Stages of Court
Proceedings vary with the type of Case
There arevarious types of Civil and Criminal cases that are filed in courts based on thetype of court. These could be writ petitions, appeals, special leave petitionsetc.
The Civil case
A typicalprocess flow of a civil case would be like in the following illustration.
The civil case is initiated by a person or entity (referred to as Plaintiff), when they feel that a legal obligation is not met by another person or an entity (referred to as Defendant). The court after reviewing the suit filed, issues a summon for the defendant to appear in front of the court. The Defendant can defend their case against the evidence presented (written statement stage). When there is a difference between the claims of the plaintiff and the defendant, an issue arises. In further stages of the proceedings, evidence is collected and submitted in the court, which is cross-examined.
After the crossexamination, there would be further hearing in court. The Judge, based on theevidence presented and the facts of the case can proceed with the judgement. Theparties involved in the Civil case have an option to appeal the judgement inhigher courts, else the case comes to a closure with execution of the decreeprovided by the court.
The Criminal
Case
The flow of proceedingsin a criminal case varies from a Civil case and is illustrated in the followingdiagram.
Filing a FirstInformation Report (F.I.R) initiates a criminal case. The Law enforcementauthorities are required to carry on an investigation in view of the F.I.R. Acharge sheet is then filed against the accused. If there is substantialevidence proving that the accused has committed a crime, the charges are
framed. The evidence is presented by the prosecution in the court of law, whichcan be cross examined by the advocates of the accused. The statement of
the accused is taken, which is the account of the accused in light of the evidencebeing presented against.
This statementalong with any new evidence provided by the Defence is cross examined. Afterfurther trial and arguments in the court, the judge can proceed to deliver thejudgement. The sentence can be argued upon. The judge hears these arguments andcan revise the punishment after which the final judgment with the Punishment isdelivered. Even in a criminal case, the accused has an option to approach thehigher courts with an appeal.
While the processlooks pretty straight forward, there are multiple stages in between wherein thecases get stalled for a longer period of time or it involves back and forthmovement of the cases between multiple stages.
Collection of
evidence and Appearance in court are the stages with the highest pendency
Data as per NJDG (NationalJudicial Data Grid) portal shows that nearly 39% of the total cases (Civil andCriminal) are pending at the Evidence/Hearing stage of the case. While another41% of the cases are stuck in the initial stages (Appearance, Service of noticeetc.).
In the civil cases, a major portion of pendency (46%) is in the stage of Court hearings which includes – collection and presentation of the evidence, the arguments for and against the case filed etc.  Of all the cases that are pending at this stage, nearly 39% of the cases are pending for evidence. Civil cases are filed by a person or entity, stating that another person or entity has not complied with the law. However, as the numbers indicate, a good portion of them remain pending for lack of substantial evidence.  Another 39% of the cases pending at this stage are due to delays with Court Hearing. High number of pending cases causes delays in securing a court hearing, and as highlighted earlier, lack of evidence or objections regarding the evidence would result in postponement of the court hearing to a later date.
Apart from 24% of the total civil cases pending in the initial stages, a further 18% of the cases are pending due to issues with compliance and the steps involved.
In pending criminal cases, nearly 48% are pending in the initial stages of – Appearance and Service. Within this, nearly 57% of the cases are pending due to non-appearance of the parties in the court. Mistakes in the court notices (date of hearing, time etc.), delays in travel, ill-health, mistakes by attorney, counsel being busy in other courts are cited as reasons for the non-appearance of the defendants.
Among the pendingcriminal cases, nearly 36% of the cases are pending at the trial stages (Evidence,Argument & Judgement). Approximately 61% at this stage are pending due tolack of substantial evidence. Another 13% of the cases are pending at thehearing stage, wherein arguments are made by counsel of the parties involved.
Lack of support
mechanism and excessive workload on the judge main causes for pendency in
cases.
Legal expertshave cited various reasons for pendency in court cases at different stages.
Featured Image: Cases pending in Indian courts