The Indian judicial system is severely burdened. And here are the figures to give an indication of the severity. An average of 4,419 cases per judge are pending in the country's high courts and an average of 1,288 cases are pending per judge in the district and subordinate courts.
The actual picture could be worse since the average of pending cases has been calculated on the basis of the sanctioned strength of judges in the courts, and the number of judges currently working in the courts is far less.
also read
- India-Bangladesh ties need to overcome political instability, regional security concerns: Parliamentary panel
- Will your car be impounded? How SC move to allow action against Delhi-NCR's end-of-life vehicles will affect you
- Justice Yashwant Varma moves Supreme Court against Speaker’s impeachment panel, court flags procedural lapse
The government cited these figures in its response to a question in the Rajya Sabha seeking to know the average pending cases per judge. Data on pending cases as available on the web portal of National Judicial Data Grid, as on December 10 2018, Minister of State for Law and Justice P P Chaudhary said is a total of 2.91 crore cases in the district and subordinate courts, and 47.68 lakh cases in the high courts. The number of pending cases when divided by the sanctioned strength of judges gives an average of 4, 419 for the high courts, and 1288 for the lower courts.
As per Chaudhary's reply, the sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court is 31, whereas number of journalists actually working is 27. In the high courts, as against a sanctioned number of 1,079 judges, 695 judges are currently in office with a vacancy for 384 judges. In the district and subordinate courts, the sanctioned strength of judges is 22,644, but the actual strength is 17,509, and 5, 135 judges' posts are vacant.
On the issue of filling up of vacancies, the minister said initiation of proposal for appointment of judges in the Supreme Court vests with the chief justice of India, while initiation of proposals for appointment of judges in the high courts lies with the chief justice of the concerned high court.
“While every effort is made to fill up the existing vacancies expeditiously, vacancies in high courts keep on arising on account of retirement, resignation or elevation of judges (to the Supreme Court) and also due to increase in the strength of judges (sanctioned),” Chaudhary said.
