Indian Judiciary Overburdened With Pending Cases

The plight of the Indian judiciary has been a focus of debate in the recent past with many experts feeling that the overburdened courts are also lacking in infrastructure and manpower, causing a delay in delivering justice.

Indian courts are flooded with an almost insurmountable heap of cases threatening to top 30 million. Sharing the figures in the Parliament on Wednesday, the government assured that it is taking all measures to combat the problem to make justice accessible to the common man. 

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There are 2.91 crores (29.1 million) cases pending in the district and subordinate courts; 21.90 lakh (2.19 million) cases are pending for more than 10 years. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra are the top 3 states with 829,128, 320,971 and 236,674 cases respectively pending for more than 10 years, the government informed the Parliament.

Legal experts cite a lack of infrastructure and manpower as the major contributors to the problem.

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"The higher judiciary in India is always in focus but the problem is more severe with the lower judiciary where training, modern infrastructure, and manpower is a major problem. One of the peculiar facts on the matter is that a majority of these cases are being pursued by the state or the state-run departments and it travels all the way till the higher court. If the government wishes it can substantially reduce the pendency if it goes for an arbitration route for its own cases at least", V V Ranganathan, head of the VRV Legal Research Centre told Sputnik.